As you read my blog about slackpacking the Way of St James (El Camino de Santiago de Compostela), you will find I occasionally use slang and some words and phrases that are not considered correct English. Also, occasionally I can’t remember a word so I will make one up. Here’s an interpretation guide to my ‘gringo lingo’:
- Crack the shits – get very cranky; throw a tantrum
- Dawdle – walk without a sense of urgency; stroll
- Diehard – extremely committed to the task; sometimes fanatical and not willing to compromise
- Gringo – a nickname Spanish and Portugese people give white people which is apparently derogatory, but I love the way the word sounds in my ears so I’m not offended by it at all. So I’m happily calling myself a Gringo.
- Kicks arse – if something “kicks arse” it is brilliant; awesome; far superior; wins the battle
- Lingo – special words and language I might use that is specific to me/my area
- Loo – toilet
- Masochist – someone who gains pleasure from receiving physical or emotional pain
- Mind-boggling – very confusing; difficult to determine an answer
- Parador – a chain of luxury hotels in Spain that kick arse
- Pilgrim – someone taking a long journey for spiritual or religious reasons; in this blog – to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain
- Slackpacker – a slack backpacker; a person who is not very good at living out of a backpack in hostels and albergues; someone who finds creative ways to travel the world comfortably and happily on a limited budget
- Slagging them off – speaking poorly of others
- Slang – an informal and casual way of speaking
- Snippet – small bit of information
- Stuffed up – made a mistake and paid for it
- Supertramping – exploring the world the way you want to; when you want to; how you want to; without rules; without surrendering to the expectations of others (see Jon Krakauer’s novel ‘Into The Wild’, the account of adventurer Chris McCandless self-named Alexander Supertramp)
- Teeny-weeny – tiny; very, very small
- Tootsie – your foot