Millions,
I need your help for my never-ending quest to make stupid bilungual jokes over email. There’s a word in Spanish that is pronounced much like Little Miss Muffet’s “whey” that means something like “fool” in Spanish. It’s kind of a throw-away word as I understand it, used like “dude” is in our esteemed California vernacular. Can anyone help me with the spelling?
-big gringo
Yes, the word guey, pronounced more-or-less like “whey,” means something like “dude” in Chicano slang. (I do not think it usually equates to “fool,” but I suppose it might in some places.) The word guay means “great, cool.” I suppose you might speak of a guey guay.
Nitpick: ChiCano slang or ChiLango slang?
My understanding is that it is general Chicano, not Chilango.
“Chilango” of course would refer to someone from Mexico City, whereas the word “guey” is used all over Mexico. Its normal use is as “dude” in English, and litterally it means “steer” (an emasuclated boy-cow). “Oye guey, que pedo?” is for our purpose translatable as “Hey dude, what’s going on?” It’s also makes the ability to transliterate regional insults in a manner that’s often not possible across languages: “Lo unico que sale de Texas son gays o gueys – cual eres tu?” Since our readership is English speaking I’ll let the Spanish stand for itself without a translation.
“Chilangos” don’t like to be called “chilangos,” and I guess I don’t blame them, because it implies a certain kind of asshole-ishness about that person. Yet whenever I see an asshole-ish driver in Mexico, 9 out of 10 he’s got a chilango plate. On the other hand, some of them (like my brother-in-law) take it in a relaxed manner. But I’ve also heard that “gringo” can be insulting to some Americans, although I’ve never personally met one who was offended by the term (present company included).
the “original” word seems to be “BUEY”, meaning Ox.
I can second this. I played soccer down in San Diego and was the only gringo on the team. “Gringo” was sort of a term of endearment, whereas if another team called me “guerro”, my teammates got pissy. Ah, those were the days…when I wasn’t a smoking office dweller. I also mention this because our center midfielder requested we call him “chilango” as his name. So there’s at least someone who, in contrast to being ashamed of the implied “asshole-ishness” (great word), took serious pride in it. I guess that’s not big news though.
Thanks for the “ox” etymology. Very interesting.
I thought Huey, Guey and Juey were Donald Duck’s 3 Mexican nephews.
There is a small town named Juay (pronounced approximately “why”) in western Panama. I’ve always thought it would be great as part of a “Who’s on First” routine:
What’s the name of this town?
Juay.
Why? I’d just like to know.
JUAY!
etc.
In México, güey is certainly synonomous with “tonto” or fool. ¡que güey! is a very common response to someone who just screwed up.
It is used loosely among friends in a way similar to dude but you shouldn’t use it with a stranger. Some may find it offensive.
seems similar to the word “huevón” which you find used in chile … there are about 100 different meanings - mostly determined by the context …
again, … ¡Qué huevón! … if you screw up … but then again a lot of casual usage between friends … ¡Sorry, 'won - no te ví!
Ah, in Mexico, for example, that’s “lazy.” The idea being that your testicles are so large that you can’t move around very easily.
Look I know nothing about Spanish. But I married a Mexican.
Guey (as he spelled it) means Ass. Or Horse’s Ass.
It it pronounced almost “whey” which might help that other thread.
Or this thread since I’m in it! Sorry. And this was the other thread I was talking about.
Yeah this one, sorry.