Sunday, February 28, 2010

Pinche idiota

Pinche is one of those words I like to call a "sentence enhacer".  It puts extra emphasis on the subject matter at hand.

If you've been studying Spanish for a while, you've likely heard the word pinche.  Especially if you've been in any type of social setting where people start letting their hair down.  A few chelas bien fría (nice cold beers) and all of sudden the Spanish language starts getting a little more colorful.  Although some people don't need beer for that. 

So what does "pinche" mean?  It's somewhere between damn, god-damn and fucking in English, depending on who you ask.  But my understanding is that it's closer to "fucking".  Either way, we don't really need an exact translation, what we do need to know is that "pinche" is a pretty strong word, so it's not for polite company.

Let's look at our example sentence:

Pinche idiota
Fucking idiot

Sure, calling someone an idiota is a pretty good insulto (insult), but when you throw in our sentence enhancer, pinche, now you're getting serious! 

Let's try a few more:

Ese pinche carro es una porquería
That fucking car is a piece of junk

Me cae mal ese pinche cabrón
I don't like that fucking asshole

You can throw in pinche just about anywhere:

Pinche pendejo
Fucking dumbass

Pinche taxi
Fucking taxi

Pinche viejo
Fucking old man

In fact, I actually heard someone use "pinche vieja" in a restaurant one day, it gave me a good chuckle. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this pinche entrada (blog post). 

Goodbye for now amigos!

**EDIT:  This blog is no longer active, but you can find more of the same great content at:

No Seas Pelangoche - http://pelangoche.blogspot.com/


18 comments:

  1. LOL, it is one very common word, and one of those words you'd call very versatile. An interesting fact is that any bad word, at least in Spanish, comes from a normal, non-bad word which is not commonly heard. For the example at hand, "Pinche" actually means "Ayudante de cocinero" something like "Cook's assistant", but being a very unused word, it became a bad worse with a completely different meaning.

    Searching for something of my job I found this link which I think could come very useful for you Rodney, you should check it out, it's in Spanish but it's really worth it: "http://www.asihablamos.com/"

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    1. My Grandmother told my Dad that in the old days that someone who was dumb enough to stand a around in public and pick at their pubic hair was a "Pendajo."

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  2. El es muy pinche (He is very mean) Pinche meaning mean.

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  3. I am the only gringa in a kitchen full of Mexicans. Pinche is thrown about often. Only in moments of frustration or our version of "Seriously?" "Are you kidding me?" It's more like a SMH than anything bad. Like tonight I was clocked out and Nacho (Ignacio) wanted me to help him stock plates that were on the pass. As I was doing it I said, "I'm not even on the clock and still helping... Pinche Nacho!" He smiled and said, "Pinche Jennifer." I love my job :)

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    1. Sounds like a great job. Doing work even the Mexicans don't want to do!

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    2. Agreed... I get laughed at alot of times because im a pinche gringa and I dont get the accent right

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    3. I'm in the reverse scenario. I am the only Mexican in my corporate job. When things don't go right or executives make me mad I say "Pinches". So far they don't know what it means:) Great sense of humor, Jenn.

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    4. I'm in the reverse scenario. I work in corporate with an office full of gringos. Nonetheless when they aggravate me I still always use my go to word "Pinches". Great sense of Humor, Jenn.

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  4. Pinche par de dos jajaja

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  5. No se haces payasa hihihi. tenemos un restaurante con sabor Latino "Pinches Tacos" It means "fucking tacos"

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  6. Like many swearwords, pinche may be used either in a good-natured way, or as part of a serious insult. And the translation changes according to the usage. Among friends or casually, it's meaning is along the lines of "goddam" or the way the British would use "Bloody". You could even get away with using it in a social situation in which you would never dream of using a word such as "fucking". However, when used as part of a full-blooded insult, then yes, it's meaning is closer to how an English speaker would use "fucking"

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  7. Like many swearwords, pinche may be used either in a good-natured way, or as part of a serious insult. And the translation changes according to the usage. Among friends or casually, it's meaning is along the lines of "goddam" or the way the British would use "Bloody". You could even get away with using it in a social situation in which you would never dream of using a word such as "fucking". However, when used as part of a full-blooded insult, then yes, it's meaning is closer to how an English speaker would use "fucking"

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  8. OK, in case it did not attach, as a Border Patrol Agent in AZ, we heard "Pinche migra" every day from the border rats and various other pukes.

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  9. strongly disagree that pinche is the word fxxking, its more like that dog on... its very common fxxking is very vulgar pinche is not a vulgar word, not the best choice for words but not so vulgar

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  10. Wouldnt "pinche" be maybe derived from the verb "pinchar" (to prick or puncture) and hence, just like English where the noun "prick" can mean "penis", pinche came to mean something with dirty sexual connotations?

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  11. Los gringos no deberíamos intentar usar "pinche" a menos que su español sea perfecto.

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  12. Either way it will get t the person attention!!

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