Turismophobia, kid and morra, to the RAE dictionary

Madrid. Chamaco, a word so historically used in Mexico and Cuba, above all, was finally recognized in the Dictionary of the Spanish Language (DLE), which incorporates up to 330 novelties, among them words defined as “pure foreign words” that have been gaining ground in popular speech, such as estreaming, login, okey, crowdfounding, hashtag, fixing, mailing y outlet, inter alia. There are also several specific speech words in other countries, such as Mexico, when registering use of the word morro in reference to “child or boy.” Furthermore, the academics decided to open the doors of the reference work to words that have been gaining ground due to the news, such as tourismphobia, which refers to the new social phenomenon that is expressed in many countries to reject the havoc that mass tourism leaves in communities, such as the increase in daily life, lack of housing and the collapse of historic city centers.

At the headquarters of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the most recent update of the DLE, which is already in its electronic version 23.8.1, which will be the last before the publication of edition 24, next year, and which is expected to be one of the great events of the year for defenders of the language. As is usual in these updates, language scholars from the RAE and the world, including Mexican, decide each modification that is incorporated into the language. It is not about imposing words, but rather registering those that are already popularly used on the street, in the media or in life in general. In some cases, academics make proposals to prevent foreign words from radically transforming the language, as they already do, but in many cases these proposals “fail,” as explained by the president of the RAE, Santiago Muñoz Machado, who referred to an initiative by the academies to incorporate the word whiskey, but in its Spanish version, that is, güisqui, which no one uses. “The failure was total and absolute,” he said.

Hence, possibly, the RAE has not made any proposal for the numerous pure foreign words that are incorporated into the DLE with this update, including some commonly used in new technologies and that are part of people’s daily lives. Perhaps the clearest case is of the word login, which will be written in italics to emphasize that it is pure foreignism. As well as hashtag, okey, pacman o gif.

Regarding the words used specifically in Mexico, the DLE now it also recognizes the words chamaco/a and morro/a), while most of the modifications are in general use among speakers. But it is the case that words are included that mean the same thing in different countries, for example simpa, which in Spain refers to when a person leaves a restaurant or a bar without paying the bill, while in Argentina the expression pagodiós is used. Or to talk about the popular game of the 80s, Pacman, which in Spain they call comecocos.

Also added to the dictionary are terms such as teleportation, teleport, teleportation, teleporter, teleportation and teleport, which means that they must come from a place or the future. Also words like bicentenario and tercentenario, trecentista, cuatrocentista, fiftiecentista, seiscentista, setecentista, eightcentista and novecentista. Another word is millennial, which is defined as “a person born in the approximate period of the last two decades of the 20th century”, although another commonly used and very current one is boomer has not yet found consensus among academics.

Other curious words incorporated into DLE They are microtheater, photo news, deratizados and screwdriver, this one referring to the drink that is prepared with vodka and orange juice or soda.

Regarding the celebration of the next International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE), to be held in Panama in four years, Muñoz Machado explained that the decision was “adopted as always” among all the academies, and that now all that remains is for “the governments of Panama and Spain to reach an agreement.” Thus, the president of the RAE responded without citing the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, who accused him of making this decision unilaterally and without having consulted anyone.