Word Study

Short studies of single words from across Latin American Spanish. One word, one observation, one small window onto the language. Published most weeks, read in five minutes, occasionally remembered for years.

Bacán — A Word That Crossed Continents

Bacán began in nineteenth-century southern Italy, crossed the Atlantic with Italian immigrants to Buenos Aires, traveled north into Chile and Peru and Colombia, and picked up slightly different meanings in each country it reached.

Articles Word Study Argentine Spanish

Che — The Word at the Heart of Argentine Spanish

Che runs through Argentine speech like a thread. It is not a noun, not a verb, not an adjective. It carries no grammatical weight. And yet it is the single word that most identifies an Argentine to other Spanish speakers — and one of them was named after it.

Articles Word Study Cultural Insight Mexican Spanish

Sobremesa — The Word That Has No English Equivalent

The meal is finished. Nobody moves to clear. Nobody reaches for their phone. An hour passes. Another. There is no English word for this. In Spanish, there is.

Articles Word Study Mexican Spanish

Ahorita: The Word That Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means

The textbook will tell you ahorita means "right now." It does, sometimes. It can also mean in ten minutes, in an hour, tomorrow, or never. A short study of a deceptive word, and what it reveals about time.