pa·chu·co

(pə-cho͞o′kō)

n. pl. pa·chu·cos

1. A Mexican-American man or boy who dresses in flamboyant clothes, often one who belongs to a neighborhood gang.

2. Offensive A Mexican-American man or boy.

[American Spanish, person from El Paso, pachuco, possibly alteration of payuco, yokel, from Spanish payo, peasant, perhaps from Gallego Payo, Pelagius (considered a typical peasant name).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Pachuco

(pəˈtʃuːkəʊ)

n, pl -cos

(Sociology) US a young Mexican living in the US, esp one of low social status who belongs to a street gang

[C20: from Mexican Spanish]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

pachuco

An American-Spanish word meaning a youth, especially one who belongs to a street gang.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

pachuco - a Mexican-American teenager who belongs to a neighborhood gang and who dresses in showy clothes

adolescent, stripling, teen, teenager - a juvenile between the onset of puberty and maturity

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Songshan District: Pachuco, 1001 Nights Taipei, Balle Balle Indian Restaurant, Caverna Spirit Bar

Upcoming Events in Taipei July 13 - July 22

In Gibraltar the mixture of Spanish and English is referred to as Llanito and in the United States other names such as Tex-Mex, Pocho, Nuyorican, Cubonics, Pachuco or Calo have also been used.

Spanglish: The Hybrid Voice of Latinos in the United States/Spanglish: la voz hibrida de los latinos en los Estados Unidos/Spanglish: la voz hibrida de los latinos en los Estados Unidos

Acaso, una glosa aparte y obligatoria la merecen algunos de los filmes protagonizados por el comediante German Valdes "Tin-Tan", particularmente aquellos que corresponden a una primera etapa de su carrera como actor de cine--El nino perdido (1947) y Musico, poeta y loco (1947) dirigidas por Humberto Gomez Landero, y Calabacitas tiernas (1948) de Gilberto Martinez Solares--donde su representacion del pachuco se erige como contraposicion a los personajes arquetipicos ofrecidos por el cine de aquel tiempo, pues "no era un charro, sino un joven que habia tomado las caracteristicas de las modas fronterizas, la consistencia de una cultura que se encontraba a la mitad entre Mexico y Estados Unidos" (Fuen).

Dentro y fuera del paradigma: representaciones del pueblo chicano en el cine de Alejandro Galindo

Laberinto famously opens in Los Angeles, with this controversial and now thoroughly rebutted discussion of the tragic clown figure of the pachuco, but that essay was only the most famous public beginning of the poet's extended engagement with the U.S.A.

Octavio Paz's bread and mole