ACA (Automóvil Club Argentino) National motoring
organization (pronounced A-ka)
ACAMPAR To camp.
ADUANA Customs post.
AEROSILLA Chairlift.
AGRESTE Wild or rustic (often used to describe a campsite
with very basic facilities).
ALERCE Giant, slow-growing Patagonian cypress, similar to
the Californian redwood.
ALMACÉN Small grocery store, which in the past often
functioned as a bar too.
ALTIPLANO High Andean plateau.
AÓNIK'ENK The Southern Group of Tehuelche (q.v), the last
of whose descendants live in the province of Santa Cruz.
ARAUCARIA Monkey puzzle tree.
AROBA The @ sign on a computer keyboard.
ARROYO Stream or small river.
ASADO Barbecue (either on a parrilla or on the spit);
tira de asado is beef ribs.
AUTOPISTA Motorway.
BACHE Pothole.
BAILANTA Dance club, where the predominant sound is
cumbia .
BALNEARIO Bathing resort; also a complex of sunshades and
small tents on the beach, often with a bar and shower facilities,
for which users pay a daily, weekly or monthly rate.
BAÑADO A type of shallow marshland, often caused by a
flooded river, and common in the Chaco region.
BANDA NEGATIVA Airline tariff bracket, where a percentage
of seats are sold at heavily discounted rates.
BAQUEANO Mountain or wilderness guide.
BARRIO Neighbourhood.
BOFEDAL Spongey Altiplano wetland.
BOLEADORAS BOLAS Traditional hunting implement, composed
of stone balls connected by thick cord, thrown to entangle legs or
neck of prey. Traditionally used by gauchos, who inherited it from
Argentina's indigenous inhabitants.
BOLETERÍA Ticket office.
BOLETO Travel ticket.
BOMBACHA Wide-legged gaucho trousers.
BOMBILLA Straw-like implement, usually of metal, used for
drinking mate from a gourd.
BONDI Colloquial term in Buenos Aires for a bus.
BOTIQUÍN Medicine kit.
C/ The abbreviation of calle (street); only rarely
used.
CABILDO Colonial town hall; now replaced by
Municipalidad.
CABINA TELEFÓNICA Phone booth.
CACIQUE Generic term for the head of a Latin American
indigenous community or people, elected or hereditary.
CAJERO AUTOMÁTICO ATM, cashpoint machine.
CALAFATE Type of thorny Patagonian bush, famous for its
blue berries.
CAMIONETA Pick-up truck.
CAMPESINO Country-dweller; sometimes used to refer to
someone with indigenous roots.
CAMPO DE HIELO Ice cap or ice-field.
CAÑA COLIHUE Native Patagonian plant of the forest
understorey, which strongly resembles bamboo.
CANCHA Football stadium.
CANTINA Traditional restaurant, usually Italian.
CARACTERÍSTICA Telephone code.
CARAGUATÁ Sisal-like fibre used by the Wichí for weaving
yica bags.
CARPA Tent.
CARRETERA Route or highway.
CARTELERA Agency for buying discounted tickets for
cinemas, theatres and concerts.
CASA DE TÉ Tearoom.
CASCO Main building of estancia; the homestead.
CATARATAS Waterfalls, usually used to refer specifically
to Iguazú Falls.
CAUDILLO Regional military or political leader, usually
with authoritarian overtones.
CEBAR MATE To brew mate .
CEIBO Tropical tree with a twisted trunk, whose
bright-red or pink blossom is the national flower of Argentina,
Uruguay and Paraguay.
CERRO Hill, mountain peak.
CHACO HÚMEDO Wet chaco habitat.
CHACO SECO Dry chaco habitat.
CHACRA Small farm.
CHAGUAR See Caraguatá .
CHAMAMÉ Folk music from the littoral region, specifically
Corrientes Province.
CHANGO Common term in the northwest for a young boy;
often used in the sense of "mate"/"buddy".
CHAQUEÑO Someone from the Chaco.
CHATA Slang term for pick-up truck.
CHE Ubiquitous, classically Argentinian term, tagged onto
the end of numerous statements and generally meaning "mate" or
"buddy". From the Mapuche for "person".
CHOIQUE Common term, deriving from Mapudungun, for the
smaller, southern Darwin's rhea of Patagonia.
CHURRO Strip of fried dough, somewhat similar to a
doughnut, often filled with dulce de leche .
COLECTIVO Urban bus.
COMBI Small minibus that runs urban bus routes.
COMPARSA Carnival "school".
CONFITERÍA Café and tearoom, often with patisserie
attached.
CONVENTILLO Tenement building.
CORDILLERA Mountain range; usually used in Argentina to
refer to the Andes.
CORTADERA Pampas grass.
COSTANERA Riverside avenue.
COUNTRY Term for exclusive out-of-town residential
compound or sports and social club.
CRIOLLO Historically an Argentinian-born person of
Spanish descent. Used today in two ways: as a general term for
Argentinian (as in comida criolla, traditional Argentinian food)
and used by indigenous people to refer to those of non-indigenous
descent.
CUADRA The distance from one street corner to the next,
usually 100 metres (see also manzana ).
CUCHILLA Regional term for low hill in Entre Ríos.
CUESTA Slope or small hill.
CUMBIA Popular Argentinian "tropical" rhythm, inspired by
Colombian cumbia.
DEPARTAMENTO Administrative district in a province; also
an apartment.
DESCAMISADOS Term meaning "the shirtless ones,"
popularized by Juan and Evita Perón to refer to the working-class
masses and dispossessed.
DESPENSA Shop (particularly in rural areas).
DÍA DE CAMPO Day spent at an estancia where traditional
asado and empanadas are eaten and guests are usually given a
display of gaucho skills.
DIQUE Dock; also dam.
E/ The abbreviation of entre (between), used in
addresses.
EMPALME Junction of two highways.
ENCOMIENDA Package, parcel; also historical term for form
of trusteeship bestowed on Spaniards after conquest, granting them
rights over the native population.
ENTRADA Ticket (for football match, theatre etc).
ESTANCIA Argentinian farm, traditionally with huge areas
of land.
ESTEPA Steppe.
ESTERO A shallow swampland, commonly found in El Litoral
and Chaco areas.
FACÓN Gaucho knife, usually carried in a sheath.
FEDERALIST Nineteenth-century term for one in favour of
autonomous power being given to the provinces; opponent of
Unitarist.
FERIA ARTESANAL DE ARTESANÍAS Craft fair.
FERRETERÍA Hardware shop (often useful for camping
equipment).
FERROCARRIL Railway.
FICHA Token.
FOGÓN Place for a barbecue or campfire; bonfire.
FONDA Simple restaurant.
GALERÍA Small shopping arcade.
GASEOSA Soft drink.
GAUCHO The typical Argentinian "cowboy", or rural
estancia worker.
GENDARMERÍA Police station.
GOMERÍA Tyre repair centre.
GOMERO Rubber tree.
GRINGO Any white foreigner, though often specifically
those from English-speaking countries; historically European
immigrants to Argentina (as opposed to criollos), as in pampa
gringa, the part of pampa settled by European immigrants.
GUANACO Wild camelid of the llama family.
GUARANÍ Indigenous people and language, found principally
in Misiones, Corrientes and Paraguay.
GUARDAEQUIPAJE Left-luggage office.
GUARDAFAUNA Wildlife ranger.
GUARDAGANADO Cattle grid.
GUARDAPARQUE National park ranger.
GÜNÜNA'KÜNA The northern group of the Tehuelche (q.v.),
now extinct.
HACER DEDO To hitchhike.
HUMEDAL Any wetland swampy area.
IGM (Instituto Geográfico Militar) The national
military's cartographic institution.
IMPENETRABLE Term applied historically to the area of the
dry chaco with the most inhospitable conditions for white
settlement, due to lack of water; the name of a zone of
northwestern Chaco Province.
INTENDENCIA Head office of a national park.
INTENDENTE Administrative chief of a national park.
INTERNO Telephone extension number.
ISLETA DE MONTE Clump of scrubby mixed woodland found in
savannah or flat agricultural land, typically in the Chaco and the
northeast of the country.
IVA (impuesto de valor agregado) Value-added tax or sales
tax.
JACARANDÁ Tropical tree with trumpet-shaped mauvish
blossom.
JUNTA Military government coalition.
KIOSKO Newspaper stand or small store selling cigarettes,
confectionery and some foodstuffs.
KOLLA Andean indigenous group predominant in the
northwestern provinces of Salta and Jujuy.
LANCHA Smallish motor boat.
LAPACHO Tropical tree typical of the littoral region and
distinguished by bright-pink blossom.
LEÑA Firewood.
LENGA Type of Nothofagus southern beech common in
Patagonian forests.
LICUADO Milkshake.
El LITORAL Littoral, shore - used to refer to the
provinces of Entre Ríos, Corrientes, Misiones, Santa Fe and
sometimes Eastern Chaco and Formosa.
LITORALEÑO Inhabitant of El Litoral.
LOCUTORIO Call centre, where phone calls are made from
cabins and the caller charged after the call is made.
LOMO DE BURRO Speed bump.
LONCO Head or cacique of a Mapuche community.
MADREJÓN A swampy ox-bow lake.
MALLÍN Swamp, particularly in upland moors.
MANZANA City block; the square bounded by four
cuadras .
MAPUCHE One of Argentina's largest indigenous groups,
whose ancestors originally came from Chilean Patagonia and whose
biggest communities are found in the provinces of Chubut, Río Negro
and especially Neuquén.
MAPUDUNGUN The language of the Mapuches.
MARCHA Commercial dance music.
MATACO See Wichí.
MATE Strictly the mate gourd or receptacle, but
used generally to describe the national "tea" drink.
MENÚ DEL DÍA Standard set menu.
MENÚ ECECUTIVO Set menu. More expensive than the menú
del día (q.v.), though not always that executive.
MESOPOTAMIA The three provinces of Entre Ríos, Corrientes
and Misiones, by analogy with the ancient region lying between the
rivers Tigris and Euphrates, in modern-day Iraq.
MICRO Long-distance bus.
MICROCENTRO The area of a city comprising the central
square and neighbouring streets.
MILONGA Style of folk-guitar music usually associated
with the pampa region; also a tango dance and a subgenre of tango,
more uptempo than tango proper.
MIRADOR Scenic lookout point or tower.
MONTE Scrubby woodland, often used to describe any
uncultivated woodland area. Also used to refer to the desertified
ecosystem that lies in the rainshadow of the central Andes around
the Cuyo region.
MOZARABIC Spanish architectural style, originally dating
from the ninth to thirteenth centuries and characterized by a
fusion of Romanesque and Moorish styles.
MUELLE Pier or jetty.
MUNICIPALIDAD Municipality building or town hall.
ÑANDÚ A common name, derived from Guaraní, for the
greater rhea, but also used to refer to its smaller cousin, the
Darwin's rhea.
ÑIRE Type of Nothofagus southern beech tree common
in Patagonian forests.
ÑOQUI Argentinian spelling of the Italian gnocchi, a
small potato dumpling. Used to refer to phoney employees who appear
on a company's payroll but don't actually work there; also slang
for a punch.
NOTHOFAGUS Genus of Patagonian trees commonly called
southern beech (includes lenga and ñire q.v.).
OMBÚ Large shade tree, originally from the Mesopotamic
region and now associated with the pampa where it was introduced in
the eighteenth century.
PAISANO Meaning "countryman"; sometimes loosely used as
equivalent to gaucho and often used by people of indigenous descent
to refer to themselves, thus avoiding the sometimes pejorative
indio (Indian).
PALMAR Palm grove.
PALO BORRACHO Tree associated especially with the
dry-chaco habitat of northern Argentina; its name (literally
"drunken stick") is derived from its swollen trunk in which water
is stored.
PALOMETA Piranha/piraña.
PAMPA The broad flat grasslands of central Argentina.
PARQUÍMETRO Parking meter.
PARRILLA Barbecue grill or restaurant.
PARRILLADA The meat cooked on a parrilla .
PASAJE Narrow street.
PASEAPERRO Professional dog walker.
PASTIZAL Grassland, often used for grazing.
PATO The Argentinian national sport; similar to handball
on horseback.
PAYADA Traditional improvised musical style, often
performed as a kind of dialogue between two singers (
payadores ) who accompany themselves on guitars.
PEAJE Road toll.
PEATONAL Pedestrianized street.
PEHUÉN Mapuche term for monkey puzzle tree.
PEÑA Circle or group (usually of artists or musicians); a
peña folklórica is a folk-music club.
PEÓN Farmhand.
PICADA A roughly-marked path; also a plate of small
snacks eaten before a meal, particularly cheese, ham or smoked
meats.
PLANTA BAJA Ground floor (first floor, US).
PLAYA Beach.
PLAYA DE ESTACIONAMIENTO Parking lot; garage.
PLAZOLETA/PLAZUELA Small square.
PORTEÑO Someone from Buenos Aires city.
PREFECTURA Naval prefecture for controlling river and
marine traffic.
PUESTO Small outpost or hut for shepherds or
guardaparques .
PUKARÁ Pre-Colombian fortress.
PULPERÍA A type of traditional general-provisions store
that doubles up as a bar and rural meeting point.
PUNA High Andean plateau (alternative term for
altiplano ).
PUNTANO Someone from San Luis.
QUEBRADA Ravine, gully.
QUERANDÍ Original indigenous inhabitants of the pampa
region.
QUINTA Suburban or country house with a small plot of
land, where fruit and vegetables are often cultivated.
QOM An indigenous group, living principally in the east
of Formosa and Chaco provinces. The word means "people" in their
language.
RANCHO Simple countryside dwelling, typically constructed
of adobe.
RASTRA Gaucho belt, typically ornamented with silver.
RC (Ruta Complementaria) Subsidiary, unsealed road in
Tierra del Fuego.
RECARGO Surcharge on credit cards.
RECOVA Arcade around the exterior of a building or
courtyard, typical of colonial-era buildings.
REDUCCIÓN Jesuit mission settlement.
REFUGIO Trekking refuge.
REMISE/REMÍS Taxi or chauffeur-driven rental car, booked
through a central office.
REMISE COLECTIVO Shared cab that runs fixed interurban
routes.
REPRESA Dam; also reservoir.
RÍO River.
RIPIO Gravel; usually used to describe an unsurfaced
gravel road.
RN (Ruta Nacional) Major route, usually paved.
RP (Ruta Provincial) Provincial road, sometimes
paved.
RUTA Route or road.
SALTO Waterfall.
SAPUCAY Bloodcurdling shriek characteristic of
chamamé .
SELK'NAM Nomadic, indigenous guanaco-hunters from Tierra
del Fuego, whose last members died in the 1960s. Also called Ona,
the Yámana (q.v.) name for them.
SENDERO Path or trail.
S/N Used in addresses to indicate that there's no house
number ( sin número ).
SOROCHE Altitude sickness.
SORTIJA Display of gaucho skill in which the galloping
rider must spear a small ring hung from a thread.
SUBTE Buenos Aires' underground railway.
TANGUERÍA Tango club.
TASA DE TERMINAL Terminal tax.
TAXÍMETRO Taxi meter.
TEHUELCHE Generic term for the different nomadic steppe
tribes of Patagonia, who early European explorers named
"Patagones".
TELEFÉRICO Gondola or cable car.
TENEDOR LIBRE Eat all you like buffet restaurant.
TERERÉ Common drink in the subtropical north of the
country and Paraguay, composed of yerba mate served with
wild herbs ( yuyos ) and ice-cold water or lemonade.
TERMINAL DE ÓMNIBUS Bus terminal.
TERRATENIENTE Landowner.
TIPA Acacia-like tree often found in northern yungas.
TOBA See Qom.
TRUCO Argentina's national card game, in which the
ability to outbluff your opponents is of major importance.
UNITARISTS Nineteenth-century centralists, in favour of
power being centralized in Buenos Aires; opponent of
Federalist.
VILLA Short for villa miseria , a shanty town.
WICHÍ Semi-nomadic indigenous group, living predominantly
in the dry central and western areas of Chaco and Formosa
provinces, and in the far east of Salta. Sometimes referred to
pejoratively as Mataco.
YAHGANES See Yámana.
YÁMANA Nomadic indigenous canoe-going people who
inhabited the channels to the south of Tierra del Fuego, and whose
culture died out in Argentina in the early twentieth century.
Called Yahganes by later nineteenth-century missionaries.
YERBA MATE The leaves of the plant, used to brew
mate .
YPF (YACIMIENTOS PETROLEROS FISCALES) The principal
Argentinian petroleum company, now privatized. It is usually used
to refer to the company's fuel stations.
ZONA FRANCA Duty-free zone.