pocho

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See also: pochó and po̱cho̱'

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Mexican Spanish pocho (literally discolored, faded).

Noun

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pocho (countable and uncountable, plural pochos)

  1. (informal) A culturally assimilated Mexican-American.
    Coordinate term: Chicano
    • 2010, Chad Richardson, Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados: Class and Culture on the South Texas Border, University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 11:
      Both often cater to wealthy Mexicans who come to shop, although many of these Mexicans look down their noses at the pochos (assimilated Mexican Americans).
    • 2012, Earl Shorris, Latinos: A Biography of the People, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 170:
      But the pochos needed a gesture, anything, some kind of cultural safe house in which they could rest for a while from the endless war on two fronts.
  2. (informal, uncountable) Spanglish
    • 1986, Mexico, Little Brown & Company, →ISBN:
      But some among their countrymen speak pocho; the descriptive term can be translated literally as “discolored” or “faded.” When used with respect to language, pocho means a slangy mixture of Spanish and English []
    • 2000, Mario T. García, Luis Leal: An Auto/Biography, University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 106:
      I especially appreciated how Villarreal changed the word pocho from a negative to a positive. The young protagonist, Richard Rubio, says, “I'm a pocho, I speak pocho, and I'm proud of it.”

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Spanish

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈpot͡ʃo/ [ˈpo.t͡ʃo]
  • Rhymes: -otʃo
  • Syllabification: po‧cho

Etymology 1

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Of expressive origin and probably related to the root of pachucho (under the weather; overripe).

Noun

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pocho m (uncountable)

  1. (slang) Spanglish

Noun

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pocho m (plural pochos, feminine pocha, feminine plural pochas)

  1. (Mexico, slang, derogatory) pocho (assimilated Mexican-American who speaks poor or broken Spanish, and has become a gringo)

Adjective

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pocho (feminine pocha, masculine plural pochos, feminine plural pochas)

  1. (Spain, of fruit) rotten
    Synonym: podrido
  2. (Spain, colloquial) sick
  3. (also figurative) faded, pale
    Synonyms: marchito, ajado
  4. (Mexico, derogatory) Americanized
    Synonym: agringado

Etymology 2

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Verb

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pocho

  1. first-person singular present indicative of pochar

Further reading

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  • pocho”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
  • Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN