guillao
gee-YAH-oh — hard gadjective, nounInformal
A Dominican Spanish slang term. Browse all Dominican slang.
What it means
Stuck-up; putting on airs. Someone guillao believes they have risen above the people they grew up with, and everyone can see them doing it.
Pretending to be something: 'guillao de rico', 'guillao de gánster'. In this construction it is closer to 'posing as' than to 'arrogant'.
The noun is guille — the pose itself. 'Tiene un guille tremendo' means the act is unbearable.
Examples with translations
Desde que se mudó a Naco anda guillao.
Ever since he moved to Naco he's been acting above everyone.
Tá guillao de artista y no ha sacao ni un tema.
He's playing the big recording artist and he hasn't released a single track.
Where it comes from
Past participle of guillarse, a verb shared with Cuban and Puerto Rican Spanish where it means to play dumb or feign something. Dominican usage has shifted the feigning towards social status specifically. The -ado ending loses its /d/, as it does in most Dominican participles.
Other forms
- Spellings and variants:
- guille, guillá
- Similar terms:
- engreído