Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A Mexican-American youth or teenager, especially one who dresses in flamboyant clothes and belongs to a neighborhood gang.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A Mexican-American, especially a juvenile delinquent in the Los Angeles area.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

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

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[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).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Spanish pachuco

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pachuco.

Examples

  • I appreciated your explanation of the word pachuco to Still Terrified in East LA, noting that it is derived from our reference to our beloved city of El Paso.

    Houston Press | Complete Issue 2008

  • I appreciated your explanation of the word pachuco to Still Terrified in East LA, noting that it is derived from our reference to our beloved city of El Paso.

    Broward-Palm Beach New Times | Complete Issue 2008

  • (Let's go to El Paso), "and correctly so on your part, the word pachuco was born.

    Houston Press | Complete Issue 2008

  • (Let's go to El Paso), "and correctly so on your part, the word pachuco was born.

    Broward-Palm Beach New Times | Complete Issue 2008

  • Subsequently, newspapers dropped the word "Mexican" from their reports, and substituted, instead, the term pachuco or zoot suiter.

    Luis Valdez 2010

  • Bracero and pachuco, I know were actual terms used at the time and not necessarily full-on racial slurs though obviously used so by whatever pus-filled nutsack of a racist, sexist lunatic wrote this mess.

    They Were Different Back in 1954 2010

  • Bracero and pachuco, I know were actual terms used at the time and not necessarily full-on racial slurs though obviously used so by whatever pus-filled nutsack of a racist, sexist lunatic wrote this mess.

    BOOK VIEW CAFE BLOG » Rules For Children’s Writing in 1954 2010

  • If the governor had the power simply to round up every pachuco in the state and put them in camps, like Roosevelt has done with the Japanese, I think Olson would exercise the right in a heartbeat.

    Masked Lou Anders 2010

  • Bracero and pachuco, I know were actual terms used at the time and not necessarily full-on racial slurs though obviously used so by whatever pus-filled nutsack of a racist, sexist lunatic wrote this mess.

    January 2010 2010

  • Bracero and pachuco, I know were actual terms used at the time and not necessarily full-on racial slurs though obviously used so by whatever pus-filled nutsack of a racist, sexist lunatic wrote this mess.

    They Were Different Back in 1954 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.