Postby alan » July 18th, 2008 4:25 pm
Rodney,
The list is surprisingly up-to-date. I have heard most of those expressions at one time or another.
Slang here in Peru is really rich, and like in any country, it has multiple origins. I have pulled these off the list you recommend:
suzuki: sucio – dirty
This is an example of a slang expression that arises because of the similarity in sound with the target expression, in this case "sucio".
piña – bad luck or misfortune (literally pineapple).
Here we see the Peruvian habit of using food to describe something. My personal favorite is how they use the word "yuca" which is a long, tubular root vegetable to describe women`s legs, as in "que buenas yucas". Another is "Lechero" or "Lechera", (from leche, which means milk), which means lucky. !Que lechero! Gano un milion de dolares.
It just goes on and on... so much fun to learn.
Alan