If you have been reading this blog for a while, you probably noticed that I use the word guiri quite often. If it’s because I’m a guiri myself, or that I don’t like the word extranjero; I don’t know. I do know that the word guiri has become a quite popular word to refer to foreigners.
A common misconception is that the word guiri is only used to describe people from England, Germany or Scandinavia. Another misconception is that’s only used in the south and on the Canary Islands. The fact is that’s it’s used to describe foreigners from all countries and that it’s used pretty much in all of Spain. Some may also think that it’s an insult, but it isn’t. In the past it could’ve been one, but nowadays it’s nothing more than a colloquial expression.
Still, the word guiri also has a vulgar meaning, namely to refer to a police officer (‘cop’ or ‘pig’ in this context).
*Grammatical note: guiri is used for both men and women. The only thing that changes the gender is the articl; la guiri for women and el guiri for men.
Sentences
Intentó ligar con una guiri.
He tried to hook up with a tourist.
Mallorca está llena de guiris.
Mallorca is filled with foreigners.
Le detuvieron dos guiris.
Two cops stopped him.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I´ve been living in the Canary Islands some years, and I live in Barcelona now, and I´ve never heard anyone using the word “guiri” as “cop”, but maybe that comes from some other part of Spain (you said once that your techaer was from Castilla, maybe this meaning is common there, I don´t know).
The post is good, but I don´t think that any foreigner could be a “guiri”. For example, someone from South-America isn´t a guiri. Although it´s true that nowadays the word isn´t only for people from UK, Germany or Scandinavia.
Greetings from Spain.
Alan’s last blog post..Diario del internauta neófito: 6. El Blog
I agree with Alan in the “cop” thing: never heard before “guiri” as “cop”.
But I disagree when he says that “guiri” is not used for South-America’s people. I think that “guiri” is used for tourists, no matter where they come from. So, if a german has been living in spain for x years, he’s no longer a guiri. He is if he’s staying here only a few days.
I’m spaniard, and agreeing with Alan and meruelo, I’ve never heard anyone using “guiri” as “cop”. In that way, it’s widely used the word “madero”. In general, it’s true that doesn’t matter where the tourist come from, but “guiri” is usually used for foreigners who don’t speak spanish.
Sorry for my poor english.
Álvaro
wowned’s last blog post..Papervision: si tienes impresora y webcam…
I never heard guiri as a cop! maybe madero, picoleto, pitufo (i like that) or whatever, but never guiri.
And well, for me, a guiri is the one that comes for tourism, not just the foreigner. They usually are people that look like foreigner without any doubt, wears shorts, are too white (no tan) and need to use some kind of hat and sunglasses because of the Spanish summer sun. I think that’s the first meaning guiri had, the tipical summer tourist from the north of Europe or America. For example, I would never call guiri to a japanese, but, yes, and England could be the tipical guiri in Spain
cheers
I know it isn’t common, but in some parts they do use it to describe ‘cops’. Where? I don’t know exactly.
hola guiris, ¿se puede escribir aquí en español?, me gusta mucho cómo describes determinadas palabras de uso coloquial como ¡coño! ¡joder! etc…la verdad es que no me he puesto a pensar en su significado para un extranjero… perdón para un guiri, hasta que he visto tus definiciones. Muy buenas, incluso para un spaniard “de pura cepa” (through and through) como yo.
Hi!
‘madero’ = Policía Nacional = National Police
‘picoleto’ = Guardia Civil = Civil Guard
‘pitufo’ = Policía Local = Local Police
&
‘guiri’ = occidental no latin language tourist or Policía Militar (Army Cop) in same regions.
Excuse me for my bad english!
Cheers!!!
FYI:
Guiri comes from “guirigay”: C&P from the DRAE…
guirigay.
(Voz imit.).
1. m. Gritería y confusión que resulta cuando varios hablan a la vez o cantan desordenadamente.
2. m. coloq. Lenguaje oscuro y difícil de entender.
So actually guiri means “foreigner who does not speak spanish”.
I also think that Guiri comes to from the word Guirigay, a Vasc language word that was used by them to reffer to the foreign people anciently.
By the way, the most similiar word that I even used to say “Cop” is “Guripa”, that is the local police of a town, or the urban police of the city.
I think you’ve just misspelled the word when referring to a policeman. The word you may have heard or read is ‘guri’ (/guri/ instead of /giri/), which is short for ‘guripa‘, a word originated from gypsy slang which means ’security guard’ or, for some people, policeman. It is used only in colloquial contexts.
Nope, checked monolingual dictioraries. Would be unlikely that it’s spelled wrong in two dictionaries (Oxford and EsPasa).