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Guanabee Glossary: Perico

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Guanabee Staff

picture-121111111111111111111111111111111111111If you’ve ever asked a Mexican whether it’s cold enough for a chaqueta or asked a Cuban to pass a bollo at dinner, you’ll know that Latino slang terms can vary from country to country, region to region, generation to generation, a reality that often results in embarrassing situations. Guanabee Glossary is our attempt to teach you Latino slang and save you from looking like a weird-ass fool in mixed company. Enjoy it, cabrones.   perico [peh-ree-ko] noun Refers to a parakeet, but can also be used to describe cocaine. 
 ¿Fumaste el perico de mi compañera de apartamento?   Debemos ir a la pajarería.You smoked my roommate's parakeet? We should go to the pet shop...

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Comments

  • View Aguardiente's profile Aguardiente July 29,2009

    Gogethekitty is quite right. Also, in Colombia we have Huevos Pericos: diced tomatoes, onions, peppers w scrambled eggs. And in DR, they have a type of music called Perico Ripiao that consists of scraping this hand-held instrument (looks like a cheese grater) w some type of stick. Always played by welcoming bands at the airports there.

    Reply
  • View Alex Alvarez's profile Alex Alvarez July 29,2009

    Y'all are right. The source I was using lied to me, thus making me look like a weird-ass fool in mixed company.

    Reply
  • View Guest's profile Guest July 29,2009

    the cheese grater look-alike..lol...is called a guiro

    Reply
  • View Aguardiente's profile Aguardiente July 29,2009

    No worries, Alex. If anything, I'm the weird-ass one for my highly suspect knowledge of the various use of the word "perico". And thanks for throwing me a life line w the name of the musical instrument, Guest. I didn't want to offend anyone by saying it looked like a cheese-grater but that's what it reminded me of! lol!

    Reply
  • View Guest's profile Guest July 29,2009

    Well... if you would have said guiro instead of cheese-grater with a stick, only a few would have know what you were talking about.

    Reply
  • View Guest's profile Guest July 29,2009

    I'm confused... so what does perico mean?

    Reply
  • View narco corrido's profile narco corrido July 30,2009

    I have heard coca being called pericas pero never perico, that was my grama mama's parrot

    Reply
  • View Guest's profile Guest August 7,2009

    Well here in SoCal, and the rest of Mexico, "Perico" is cocaine or being high on coke, as in "Ando bien perico" or "Ando bien loro". Also used as "Pericazo" (snort, hit), "Periquin"(small quantity) or "periquito" (small hit or quantity). So if you people ever hear the word "perico" at a party or a club, notify the nearest authority....yea right, I would say "Mochesen", "Saquen", "Presta 'pa aca", "De a como".

    Reply

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