words Archives - Page 2 of 97 - understand-culture

Becoming a Regular Customer

Mexican Spanish has a verb for it. The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy marks amarchantarse as Mexican and defines it as “hacerse cliente habitual de un comerciante” (to become the regular customer of a merchant). The regular customer is the marchante. Many market vendors tease their colleagues roughly, the magazine Chilango wrote, “pero respetan al marchante” (but they respect the regular customer).

The relationship has a reward. The pilón is a small extra on top of the purchase. Matador Network in Spanish describes it as the extra that customers earn “por nuestra fidelidad” (through our loyalty).

No Obligation

¡Pásele, sin compromiso! “Come in, no obligation!” In a 2021 article on market signs, the magazine Chilango counted pásele güerita and pásele sin compromiso among the famous cries of the tianguis, the street market. Güerita is a friendly form of address for a woman customer. The vendor invites the passerby in and promises that looking commits them to nothing.

Making Somebody a Nobody

Ningunear means to treat someone as if he or she were nobody, from ninguno, “none.” In “Máscaras mexicanas,” a chapter of El laberinto de la soledad, Octavio Paz gives the noun a definition: “El ninguneo es una operación que consiste en hacer de Alguien, Ninguno” (Ninguneo is an operation that consists in making Somebody into Nobody).

Exposed from the Balcony

Balconear, from balcón, balcony, is Mexican slang for exposing someone in public. Cultura Colectiva defines it as making a person’s private life public, or mocking something that should not be known. Its example is “Balconeó a su jefe y lo corrieron” (He exposed his boss, and he was fired). In December 2020, Uno TV used the word for teachers who had been balconeados during online classes.

Cooperacha

Cooperacha is the Mexican word for money pooled among friends, relatives or coworkers to buy drinks, snacks and other things for a party. In 2020, Los40 México called it a “cooperación aparentemente voluntaria” (an apparently voluntary contribution). The article lists it among the words of the office world.

Talks

In Mexico, a conversation is a plática, and to talk is platicar. The Larousse Spanish-English dictionary marks the noun as used in Central America and Mexico and translates it as “talk, chat.”

The same word is used for formal negotiations. In March 2026, thirty years after the talks between the federal government and the Zapatista army at San Andrés Larráinzar, in Chiapas, a column in El Imparcial recalled the moment “cuando se iban a iniciar las pláticas en Larrainzar” (when the talks in Larráinzar were about to begin).

Trial Balloons

Globo sonda, “probe balloon,” is the Mexican political term for a way of anticipating how the public will react to a measure. A column in SDP Noticias explains that a globo sonda “permite observar el nivel de aceptación o rechazo de las medidas” (makes it possible to observe the level of acceptance or rejection of the measures).

Merolico

In popular speech, Chilango notes, the word merolico is linked to “una persona muy habladora” (a very talkative person).

According to México Desconocido, the word comes from Juan Rafael de Meraulyock, who arrived in Mexico in 1879 and sold remedies. He “pregonaba tener bálsamos para curar todos los padecimientos conocidos y por conocer” (proclaimed that he had balms to cure every ailment known and yet to be known). This origin rests on popular history, and the spelling of his name varies.

The Bone

In Mexican political talk, a government post can be called a hueso, a “bone.” A column in El Siglo de Torreón describes politicians who “se dan codazos, trompadas y zancadillas en defensa del hueso” (elbow, punch and trip each other in defense of the bone).

Chilango’s satirical Manual del político mexicano speaks of “el poder del hueso,” the power of the bone. It explains that a politician’s “amistades son más bien alianzas, y los favores vienen incluidos en el paquete” (friendships are rather alliances, and the favors come included in the package).

Malinchismo

Malinchismo takes its name from La Malinche, the interpreter of Hernán Cortés. The Diccionario del español de México defines it as the inclination “a preferir lo extranjero o al extranjero” (to prefer what is foreign, or the foreigner).

BBC Mundo writes of La Malinche: “En el imaginario colectivo de México, aún hoy es vista como la mayor traidora de la historia del país” (In Mexico’s collective imagination, she is still seen today as the greatest traitor in the country’s history).