Cádiz takes its idioms to the streets

“It is not the same to kiss in a hallway or in a doorway than to do it at the door house.” This is one of the 59 poetic definitions of as many words that, like multicolored panels, surround the four walls of the Central Market of Cádiz.

Palabra de Cádiz is not just an exhibition, it is the way in which the city has claimed its own language during the International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE).

Casapuerta, so common in the typical constructions of Cadiz architecture, is the access door to the house and one of the words chosen from among the dozens of expressions that, for centuries, have been installed in the speech of the city.

Professor Pedro Payán Sotomayor compiled them in his Cádiz-Castilian dictionary El habla de Cádiz, published in 1983 and republished by the Cádiz City Council and CILE, and the scientific basis for the exhibition designed a year ago to promote the city as the venue for the congress. in 2025.

But the political instability in Peru made it necessary, a few months ago, to move the congress from Arequipa, where it was to be held this year, to Cádiz, which organized the event in a few weeks.

Not all the words that make up the Cádiz lexicon have an exact translation; The word is above all the expression of the Cádiz way of being, for which reason the exhibition of the market, of the Plaza, the only one with a capital letter among the dozens of squares in the city, is not limited to offering an alternative word, but rather He explains it so that the observer begins to understand the language and personality of the city.

The lexicon that is shown also has the particularity of going beyond the borders of the city, since many expressions have been adopted in other areas of Spain and also in Latin America. Here are the selected words:

AGUATAPÁ

It is said when in certain places on the beach the sea covers the person. Sometimes signifier and signified merge in such a way that it is a pleasure to pronounce it and it takes us where mothers could not see us. Were you also going to aguatapá?

AGOGAÍLLA

Plunge that is given jokingly by keeping the head submerged for a few moments. There are words that phonetically say more than their meaning says. Because an ahogadilla is not an ahogaílla, right?

PIN

Very fine metallic nail, which is generally used to attach or hold some part of the person’s clothing, headdresses, and other adornments. Surely if we say clamp you understand it better. But in Cádiz, with its winds, there is no better way to hang clothes than by holding them tight with some good pins.

TO LIQUINDOI

It comes from the English expression at looking doing, to be watching… Are you aware of everything? Are you a curious person or have you just been warned of a danger? You are, then, At looking doing, which translated is…

ADVISORY

Lower rooms that have a separate entrance and separate use from the rest of the main building. If you know what it means, it is that you are very much from Cádiz, because in this term is our history, the history of the merchants, who brought our words to America.

ARDENTY

Heartburn. Some people call it heartburn, especially in the stomach, but in Nicaragua they call it something like here because there are words that come and go… like heartburn.

SUBJECT

Type of noodle or pasta for large size soup. vulgar person Babetazo: give an irrelevant talk. Let’s admit it, they are very tasty with tomato, and we love them as long as it’s not a slobber who comes to give you a slobber.

BABUCHA

Espadrille, slipper. It comes from Arabic and means slipper, but its augmentative means something else, or do you not know what a slipper is?

BACHE

Small place where drinks are sold, especially wine. It can be an obstacle in the road, a bad run, but around here we know that a pothole is much more… and it doesn’t always have to be bad.

SHALLOWS

Dizziness, malaise If it is bad shoal it means bad luck. If you look it up in the dictionary you’re going to go crazy, because a shoal is low ground that tends to get bogged down, but a faintness is what we know here as a shoal, which enters you and leaves your fatal body.

BASTINAZO

Although it has a positive connotation, it derives from coarse, something coarse or vulgar. No matter how much you look for it, you will not find it even in the dictionary, so ask anyone its meaning or let yourself fall in love with its signifier. What a bastard!

DAM

Metallic closure of commercial establishments. If you know what it costs to get up every morning, it is because you know that this game is not played at cards, because in Cádiz a deck of cards is something else.

BEDOUIN

Cádiz from the Extramuros area. The tirillas live in Cádiz Norte and the Bedouins in Cádiz Sur, it’s not so complicated, right? From Cádiz or Puerta Tierra…

BIEENMESABE

Sweet made with egg and sugar, for the dictionary… But here we know that marinade is a delicacy that is very much ours… and that it tastes very good.

BIRUJI

Fresh wind. It is the same but it is not the same; because yes, a biruji is a cold wind, but you already know that in Cádiz it is not cold…, that it is humid.

BOCA

Cavity in which the tongue and teeth are placed. With our mouths we speak, we kiss, we eat… but if we say “crabs, mouths, shrimp…”, you already know what we are saying.

BOOMING

Antillean voice that means hut. It comes to us from America, from the bohío tahín, which is a hut made of branches, although here a bujío is not always a bad place, right?

CAJONAZO

Failure. It comes from the world of carnival, and is an invention of Quini in the 50s.

CARAJAZO

Blow that one gives when falling. It is used in Mexico and Venezuela with the same meaning as here, that is, a gentleman hit, a hell of a lot, let’s go…

FUCK

The person who has a good time. According to the dictionary, it means stupid, stupid, but in Cádiz not only stupid people are carajotes (or carajotas). Would you dare to say where the term comes from?

CASAPUERTA

Door to the street, hall. That it is not the same to kiss in a hallway or in a doorway than to do it at the door house. Because there are words that say much more than what they say.

CHAPPU

Work or work of little importance. You won’t find it in the dictionary, but you know exactly what it means, because either you’ve been done, or you’ve done one more than once. And don’t confuse it with botch.

CHOCO

Heavy, insistent person. Someone unattractive. In Bolivia it is blond, in Chile it is the person who limps, in Colombia it is brown, in Peru it is a monkey and in Spain it is a cuttlefish. But in Cádiz, a choco is a choco, isn’t it?

PEA

Pea. The dictionary tells us that it is a term that comes from Cuba, but you already know that Cádiz is Havana (with more salt shakers, they say).

JOKE

Group of 10 to 15 people with a repertoire based on humor. They accompany their lyrics with snare drum, bass drum and guitars. It comes from Cuba and we already know what the habanera says, but it sounds so much like Cádiz that the chirigota is as much ours as you are.

I CLOSE

Typical Cádiz glazed balcony. Some people call it a ‘viewpoint’, but the Cádiz hills are much more, because they are for looking at and so that they don’t see you.

COUNTERSHAFT

Counterhand: In the opposite direction to the current or to that prescribed by the authority. It is one of our favorite words, pure creativity, although its meaning has nothing to do with you or with us, because we are all going in the same direction.

PICK CUTTER

Insect that is characterized by the clamp, tenacious or scissors that it has at the posterior end of the body. Did you know that it is an orthopteran insect with a narrow body, black in color, a reddish head, filiform antennae, sometimes without wings or elytra, and an abdomen ending in two horny, mobile pieces, like a kind of pliers? Well, that’s the same thing.

tickle

Blow to the head with the knuckles of the hand. And it is not the same that they give you a tickle, that they give you the tickle and the pringá.

CORNY

When it is intended to show an expressive refinement or a passionate feeling but it is ridiculous and excessively delicate. There are words that are born in a specific place and this is from Cadi-Cadi. In addition, the ladies of Sicourt loved the copla that the people of Cádiz dedicated to her: “Las niñas de Sicur, Sicur, Sicur, Sicur…”

CHAMPELING

It comes from the champe, a set of pernals with a hook in the same rig. No matter how hard you try, you wouldn’t know how to define it. But you do know that here the waves and good things come enchampeladas…

ESPIOCHA

Tool used for digging. “There was half of Cádiz with espiochas and my poor mother-in-law and that she was already half a pussy…” Do you know that in Mexico a very graceful person is called espiocha?

FATIGUE

Want to vomit. Very eager person. It’s one of our favorite words, because it doesn’t mean anything you’re thinking. Although if you are a fatigue, you will not need anyone to tell you, you already know it.

GADITA

Castizo Cadiz, popular, lover of the things of our land. That being from Cádiz is not the same as being from Cádiz, you know that…

GARGAJILLO

Rubber shoes to walk around La Laja. You will need them if you go to Laja. And what is Laja? In Colombia they call the ropes that way, and here we call the most beautiful things in La Caleta that way.

GUACHISNAI

It comes from What’s your name? that translated turns out to be someone normal and ordinary. What comes from What’s your name? Who knows? Because wherever it comes from, we know how to identify a guachisnai just by seeing it, and you?

JARTIBLE

Heavy person, so insistent that it becomes annoying, or not. It sounds like what it means, it is so from Cádiz that it almost defines us and also defines you, because you are part of our candidacy.

TOMORROW

Dibranchial cephalopod mollusk, decapod, with an oval body, with a fin on each side. It reaches about 30 cm in length, is abundant in temperate seas and is edible. They will tell you that it is a cuttlefish or a squid, but the cuttlefish from Cádiz is much more and, perhaps, that is why you end up taking cuttlefish, right?

JINDOI

Fear. It comes from caló and it is one of those words whose signifier is already telling you everything, what a jindama!

JOSEPH

Mop to clean the floor. From the Hispanic Arabic ajofifa derived in our josifa, which is the same for cloth, cloth or mop. That’s how we are escandaos.

LIBERAL

That professes doctrines favorable to political freedom. Free, with loose morals. It is one of our most emblematic contributions to the dictionary, because it was born here with its current meaning. And from here, we send it to the world…

LACIO, LACIA: passive, weak person, without grace or initiative. Example: “What a straight girl, what a bore!”.

malage

Unfriendly, person with little grace. She comes from bad angel. Said of a person means that it is unpleasant or has a bad shadow. But here a malaje is something more, although we wouldn’t know how to specify it because we don’t know many, and you?

MANDAUS

Shopping for groceries and household utensils. Raise your hand who has not ever gone for the errands. It doesn’t say buy here, no…

MASETILLA

Landing of the stairs. It is a very clear example of popular etymology, a syncretism between a pot and a table, totally, a good way to call the landing where we still say good morning!

MOJARRA

Teleost fish of the Acanthopterigians suborder, edible, about 20 cm long, with an oval, dark-coloured body, with three black spots, a broad head and large eyes. You will not always find it grilled or fried… sometimes we give it to the mojarra because it never sounds like Cádiz.

musket

Spontaneous nosebleed without apparent cause. Did they tell you to throw your head back or forward? That you raise your arm or that you stay still?

FOR THEM

No, it’s not what it seems, a triple denial is the most typical way of telling you, of telling us, yes. Equivalent to the expression “go no”.

QUILLO

Short form of boy that is used as a greeting, name or vocative. It is so ours that when you listen to it, you know you are at home… or very close. This is a word to be at home.

PAPER

carnival confetti. The dictionary will tell you that it is a paper cigarette or a dose of powdered medicine. Here the papers are medicine, but of another class. Confetti, they say out there…

PARADISE

Highest location of the theater, cinema or other entertainment venue. Clear creation from Cádiz. You will not be expelled from this paradise for eating the forbidden fruit…, nor for singing our songs at Carnival.

MATCH

Small flat. When a diminutive says much more than you think… It’s not a small game, it’s a way of living, sometimes a bad life. Do you know what we mean?

PIMPI

Trickster, seductive… Typical Cadiz product. His environment was on the docks to make a living with people who were looking for accommodation, acting as a guide… The sound of the term evokes his image through our streets, body and soul, with its meaning and signifier.

STREAK

Strong push, drift from the blows of the sea. Period of brief fortune or misfortune. We know that the vulture on the monument was brought by a “gust of wind” and we also know that in bullas the most normal thing is to get one. What can we do!

REFINING

Haberdashery. There are very few left, and although the dictionary tells you that it is something very fine and careful, and although in Mexico they call brandy that way, around here we know that they are necessary for sewing. Where else do you buy the buttons and zippers?

SIESO

Difficult to deal with, unfriendly, bad person. According to the dictionary it is the last part of the intestine, but you and I know that this is not always the case, because you recognize a sieso when you see it, and because the superlative is our Sieso Manío. bland, unbearable, annoying or disagreeable person

BEGIN

Fuss. Rampage. You won’t find it in the dictionary, but you will find it in our streets, because the tangai is insured… and you know it.

TYPE

Class, nature, nature of things. Strange and singular person. In Cádiz, which we know is much more than what the dictionary says, and much more than a costume, because we can tell you about it… and even sing, like, like!