Spanish Word of the Day: payo

Today a word that’s probably not very useful for you directly, but it’s interesting to know it nonetheless. I’m talking about the word payo (or paya, for women).

Most dicionaries don’t mention the word at all, but the Diccionario de la lengua española of the RAE has a really clear definition;

m. Entre los gitanos, quien no pertenece a su raza.

Although there are certainly some other meanings of the word, payo is mainly used between gitanos (gypsies in some parts of the world) to refer to someone who’s no gitano. At some occasions and in some parts of Spain it can also act as a way to refer to close friends (like you’d use tío or tía).

I’m not aware of the fact that’s it’s used in other parts of the hispanosphere as well, but in Spain it’s certainly a well-known word.

Tagged as: colloquial expression, expression, gitano, slang, spanish, word of the day