rufo
n.— «“En California los mexicanos dicen ‘Guachaut’ (watch out: cuidado) o ‘simon’ cuando se saludan (yes, man: sí, hombre). En Nueva York los puertorriqueños dicen ‘rufo’ (roof: techo)”, narró Morales.» —“El spanglish: un fenómeno lingüístico que se abre paso en los EEUU” IBLNEWS (New York) Feb. 9, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A young caller from the Hudson Valley of New York wonders about his grandmother’s use of stemwinder to praise a speech she thought was excellent. In the early 1800s, people used pocket watches that had to be wound with a tiny key. Once someone...
Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis...