''Güey'' (; also spelled ''guey'', ''wey ''or ''we'') is a word in colloquial
Mexican Spanish
Mexican Spanish ( es, español mexicano) is the variety of Dialect, dialects and Sociolect, sociolects of the Spanish language spoken in Mexican territory. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers, with more than twice as many as in a ...
that is commonly used to refer to any person without using their name. Though typically (and originally) applied only to males, it can also be used for females (although when using slang, women would more commonly refer to another woman as "chava"
oung womanor "vieja"
ld lady.
It is used roughly the same as "
dude
''Dude'' is American slang for an individual, typically male. From the 1870s to the 1960s, dude primarily meant a male person who dressed in an extremely fashionable manner (a dandy) or a conspicuous citified person who was visiting a rural lo ...
" in modern
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
.
What is Güey in English? - Güey Spanish
/ref> It is derived from the term buey, meaning ox. It was used to insult men as cuckold
A cuckold is the husband of an adulterous wife; the wife of an adulterous husband is a cuckquean. In biology, a cuckold is a male who unwittingly invests parental effort in juveniles who are not genetically his offspring. A husband who is aw ...
s,consonant mutation
Consonant mutation is change in a consonant in a word according to its morphological or syntactic environment.
Mutation occurs in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of al ...
to a , often elided, resulting in the modern pronunciation "wey". The word can be used as an insult, like "fool", although, due to its extremely high frequency of use in a multitude of contexts, it has lost much of its offensive character, becoming a colloquialism
Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the style (sociolinguistics), linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom norm ...
.
Use
It is common to use both meanings of the term interchangeably:
# To denote stupidity or ignorance, in expressions like "''¡Qué güey soy, se me olvidó el celular!''" (I'm such an idiot, I forgot my (cell) phone!) Or "''¡No seas güey!" (Don't be an idiot!)
# "''¡No güey! ¡Estoy en el celular!''" (No dude! I'm on the phone!); "''No güey, no pude ir.''" (No dude, I couldn't go.)
# To refer to a person whose name is unknown, like "''¿Que no es tu hermano aquel güey de camisa roja?''" (Isn't the dude with the red shirt your brother?)
In the first case, it is used like the English profanity
Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, rud ...
, "dumbass". In the last two cases, it is used like the American slang
Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...
term, "dude
''Dude'' is American slang for an individual, typically male. From the 1870s to the 1960s, dude primarily meant a male person who dressed in an extremely fashionable manner (a dandy) or a conspicuous citified person who was visiting a rural lo ...
".
Although the word is not always offensive nor an insult between friends, its usage is generally considered uneducated. Thus its usage is limited mostly to friends and trusted acquaintances or among young people. It is considered in poor taste for a teenager or a child to refer to an adult as "''güey''," although among adults it is usually used in a common way. The word is used in any social class, being equally accepted and used in all. It is also used in television and radio in popular entertainment, but not in more formal or objective programs, like in the news.
See also
*Spanish profanity
The Spanish language employs a wide range of swear words that vary between Spanish speaking nations and in regions and subcultures of each nation. Idiomatic expressions, particularly profanity, are not always directly translatable into other ...
External links
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guey (Vulgar)
Mexican slang