Every country has a flag, food and symbols that identify them. But what about a single word?
During the 6th International Congress of the Spanish Language (VI Congreso Internacional de la Lengua Española) celebrated in Panama, the blog Papeles Perdidos, created by the newspaper El País, published an atlas of the representative words of Spanish-speaking countries. They asked 20 writers which word they consider “best reflects your country.” The storytellers, poets and essayists responded with what they consider the most authentic words from their country, and this the word from El Salvador:
Salvadoran Spanish: CIPOTE in English
“This word is commonly used as a synonym for a child, a youth, or an immature adult. It is exclusive to El Salvador, where it was not given any of the conventional meanings (coarse or clumsy man, penis),” explains Horacio Castellanos Moya, novelist, short story writer, and journalist from El Savador.
The Diccionario de Americanismos adds one more meaning for the word cipote: “boyfriend or fiance, a person in a relationship with intent to marry.”
Check out these other El Salvador Spanish Slang articles.
