sheetrockero n. a person who hangs drywall, also known as gypsum board or sheet rock. Also sheetroquero. Editorial Note: The book Learning Construction Spanglish includes the Spanglish verb shiroquear, meaning to “to hang drywall or sheetrock,” but the term rarely occurs in print. Etymological Note: English “sheet rock” + Spanish “-ero,” a masculine suffix used in forming agentive nominals, that is, nouns that indicate a person who does, or is supposed to do, a particular task. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
There was a time when William Shakespeare was just another little seven-year-old in school. Classes in his day were demanding — and all in Latin. A new book argues that this rigorous curriculum actually nurtured the creativity that later flourished...
The word arises out of a bilingual situation, so perhaps we can assume a sufficient grasp of English phonetics. Plus, “sheetrockero” was the most common spelling at the time I did this entry.
While I agree that the Spanglish word has its origins in the English word “Sheetrock”, there are pronunciation changes that do not lend themselves to the spelling “Sheetrockero”. Native Spanish speakers do not hear distinct English sounds such as those of a “tr” combination in a word like this—they simply do not hear nor enunciate the t in this combination. Additionally, the letter k rarely if ever appears in Spanish words; the sound is achieved through the combination of the letters que. The more appropriate spelling of the Spanglish word is shiroquero, and the accompanying verb shiroquear, if one has any hope of pronouncing it correctly.