Thursday, September 23, 2010

Chingadera: a Proposed Etymology

Something to be used up, or of little consequence. The word that stands for the word you momentarily forgot for the thing you're pointing at. A pile of split firewood, as in: "una chingadera de len[y]as". An example of the kind of rubbish I think about late at night. Archaically: noun cognate of the verb "chingar", to split lengthwise. "Chingar" now means to harshly disrespect, to treat like trash, sometimes to rape. One must never call a Mexican man "hijo de la chingada". This is sometimes referred to as committing "suicide by dishonoring".

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