# Is it "ese" or "hese"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 6, 2007, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628 "2007-08-06T14:54:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2007, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/1 "2007-08-06T14:54:02Z")
How is the Spanish address that is sort of equivalent to “dude” spelled? Where did it come from?
Thanks for your help,
Rob
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### Author:  [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2007, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/2 "2007-08-06T15:14:09Z")
I’m almost positive it’s “ese.” But I have no idea where it came from.
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### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2007, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/3 "2007-08-06T16:01:13Z")
According to one of the Urban Dictionary’s correspondents, “ese” (“S,” in English) stands for _sureño_, meaning “southerner,” as in Southern California. It’s supposedly used only by Mexicans in that area. Truly exclusive use seems unlikely, but I expect it’s vigorously enforced by some.
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### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/4 "2007-08-06T16:09:04Z")
Further research indicates that the Sureños are actually gangs controlled by the Mexican Mafia, and that “eses” are identifying themselves as members of such gangs; at least, that’s how it started.
[http://www.knowgangs.com/gang\_resources/profiles/surenos/](http://www.knowgangs.com/gang_resources/profiles/surenos/)
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2007, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/5 "2007-08-06T16:56:12Z")
I thought it was _jefe_, meaning “boss”. Or is that a different word?
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### Author:  [@ChicanoRojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChicanoRojo)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2007, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/6 "2007-08-06T17:49:12Z")
[QUOTE=sweeteviljesus]
How is the Spanish address that is sort of equivalent to “dude” spelled? Where did it come from?
Thanks for your help,
Rob
[/QUOTE]
Chicano slang is “vato” which is roughly equivalent to “dude.” “Ese vato” means “that dude”.
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2007, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/7 "2007-08-06T23:00:55Z")
I’ve also heard that it comes from S.A. Spanish American, which is the old census term for Latinos.
I’m just saying what I’ve heard.
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### Author:  [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2007, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/8 "2007-08-11T22:51:35Z")
[QUOTE=sweeteviljesus]
How is the Spanish address that is sort of equivalent to “dude” spelled? Where did it come from?
Thanks for your help,
Rob
[/QUOTE]
It’s “Hesse”. _Steppenwolf_ was unbelievably popular in Mexico.
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### Author:  [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2007, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/9 "2007-08-12T01:48:07Z")
“ese” (that one). I have seen it used as a salutation, just as you would say “dude” (or “hey”) to some random dude. I don’t think it is common, though.
“eje” (doesn’t mean anything) or “ejele” are also used that way. Also “epa” or “epale”.
A bit more background could help. Where have you heard this?
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### Author:  [@iftheresaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iftheresaway)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2007, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/10 "2007-08-12T06:36:58Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo]
“ese” (that one). I have seen it used as a salutation, just as you would say “dude” (or “hey”) to some random dude. I don’t think it is common, though.
“eje” (doesn’t mean anything) or “ejele” are also used that way. Also “epa” or “epale”.
A bit more background could help. Where have you heard this?
[/QUOTE]
I’m not the OP, but I lived in California for seven years, and I heard “ese” (however it’s spelled) all the time; far more than “vato”. As I was still in elementary school and junior high at the time, these were probably not gang members (at least not when I lived in NoCal). Pronounced “essay” and used pretty much every time they saw a friend, in my experience.
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### Author:  [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2007, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/11 "2007-08-12T11:00:15Z")
[QUOTE=iftheresaway]
I’m not the OP, but I lived in California for seven years, and I heard “ese” (however it’s spelled) all the time; far more than “vato”. As I was still in elementary school and junior high at the time, these were probably not gang members (at least not when I lived in NoCal). Pronounced “essay” and used pretty much every time they saw a friend, in my experience.
[/QUOTE]
ok, like that it is more akin to saying “hey” than anything else. It was a low-class fashionable thing to say in Venezuela a few years ago.
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### Author:  [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2007, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/12 "2007-08-12T18:16:24Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo]
ok, like that it is more akin to saying “hey” than anything else. It was a low-class fashionable thing to say in Venezuela a few years ago.
[/QUOTE]
It is common enough here for [stand up comics to routinely make fun of it (at 1:14)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMzxK2WPSfk)
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/13 "2007-08-13T01:20:19Z")
[QUOTE=groman]
It is common enough here for [stand up comics to routinely make fun of it (at 1:14)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMzxK2WPSfk)
[/QUOTE]
Plus South Park worked it into one of their episodes - the boys hired Mexican illegal immigrants to read a particular book for them, and then told them to write their essays. Cue followup where the immigrants discussed the book, and then talked about having written to their “eses” and how they appreciated getting letters.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2007, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/14 "2007-08-13T07:50:28Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo]
Where have you heard this?
[/QUOTE]
I believe it is required by law that any Mexican character say it if he is onscreen more than five minutes in a TV show or video game.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2007, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/15 "2007-08-13T17:02:36Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon]
I thought it was _jefe_, meaning “boss”. Or is that a different word?
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, different word.
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### Author:  [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/16 "2007-08-13T17:10:52Z")
[QUOTE=groman]
It is common enough here for [stand up comics to routinely make fun of it (at 1:14)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMzxK2WPSfk)
[/QUOTE]
Very funny.
Never heard it used it like that before, though. If that is what the OP is asking about, then I got nothing.
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### Author:  [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/17 "2007-08-13T17:47:33Z")
None of us actually checked Wikipedia?
[Article about Ese](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ese)
[Article about Sureños](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sure%C3%B1os)
Seems plausible enough for me.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2007, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ese-or-hese/414628/18 "2007-08-13T18:18:56Z")
It’s definitely an LA or SoCal thing. You only hear it up hear in NorCal when people are deliberately imitating our southern brethren (whom we’d all just soon see sink into the Pacifc, btw 🙂 ).