tíguere

What it means

1. 1.

   The central character type of Dominican street life: quick-witted, unbothered by rules, good at getting by on nerve and improvisation. Admiring or damning depending entirely on who says it.

2. 2.

   Of a woman, tíguera, and of a child, tíguerito — a kid who is too sharp for his own good.

3. 3.

   As a loose compliment for anyone competent and shameless enough to solve a problem: 'ese doctor e' un tíguere'.

Literally: tiger

Examples with translations

• Ese tíguere consiguió lo' boleto' en media hora.

  That operator got hold of the tickets in half an hour.

• No te fíe' de él, ese e' un tíguere.

  Don't trust him, he's a chancer.

  Note: Same word, opposite verdict — the reading depends on the speaker's tone and on whether the listener is a beneficiary.

• Tíguerito, bájate de ahí.

  Get down from there, you little terror.

Where it comes from

From tigre, with the epenthetic vowel Dominican Spanish inserts into consonant clusters. The social type it names crystallised in mid-twentieth-century Santo Domingo and was documented at length by Lipe Collado in 'El tíguere dominicano' (1992); the word itself is older than the literature on it.

First attested: mid-20th century

Other forms

Spellings and variants:

tíguera, tíguerito