I've just taken it for a spin. The website is running very slowly (on my computer at any rate) so I presume it's getting lots of hits because it is new. I have the paper version of the Diccionario del Habla de los Argentinos published by Academia Argentina de Letras so I have been amusing myself by throwing random words from this into the new dictionary search. Generally the on-line service recognises the words and provides a clear definition - often, in my opinion, easier to follow than the DdHdlA. But it has so far failed to recognise about one in ten of the words I've entered - which is mildly ironic since the DdHdlA cites Clarin as its source for a couple of them! It's good though. Much handlier than the book for a quick look-up but not as satisfying to browse and discover new words.
I've yet to find an argentine dictionary or meet an argentine that knows the meaning of the verb "ranchar". Does anyone know the meaning of this word? Here's the context from some cumbia villera lyrics:
"Estoy pegado re jugado hasta las manos.
Ranchando con pibitos de mi palo."
-Tumbero por Yerba Brava
Debe ser una palabra negrísima... I should ask a kid from the villa.
I have the paper version of the Diccionario del Habla de los Argentinos published by Academia Argentina de Letras so I have been amusing myself by throwing random words from this into the new dictionary search.
The reason you can't find some of the words on-line is because this is not the dictionary published by the Academia de Letras. It is the dictionary that Tinta Fresca (owned by Clarin) put out a year or two ago.
I've yet to find an argentine dictionary or meet an argentine that knows the meaning of the verb "ranchar". Does anyone know the meaning of this word? Here's the context from some cumbia villera lyrics:
"Estoy pegado re jugado hasta las manos.
Ranchando con pibitos de mi palo."
-Tumbero por Yerba Brava
Debe ser una palabra negrísima... I should ask a kid from the villa.
In my experience, this is a verb used especially by (some) young people in villas and of the poor working class. It means "to hang out (including, sometimes, living together on the street, for example )".
Actually, any term used with the same meaning by more than one person is considered a "word". "Ranchar", if I had to guess, is used or recognized by thousands of people. This alone makes it a word.
Don't think that just because you can't find it in a dictionary (or because you don't consider yourself part of the group that uses the word), that it's not a "word". All English and Spanish speakers use or readily recognize thousands of regional words that, to date, are not in dictionaries.
From my experience, this is a verb used especially by (some) young people in villas and by the lower working class. It means "to hang out (together)", agian, from what I know.
Im not jumping Joe. It was her answer, yes, it has a few classist and racist undertones, but to her that is what the word means. You know how I feel about generalizations. ha.