pachuco

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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.

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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

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References in periodicals archive ?

Por ejemplo, el capitulo III, "Zoot Suit Allies and The Arizona Law" examina las alianzas entre Okies (migrantes de Oklahoma forzados por la depresion de 1930 a emigrar) y Pachucos, o entre Alice Bloomfield y George Shearer, los defensores de los jovenes chicanos arrestados en la obra de Luis Valdez.

Day, Stuart. Outside Theater. Alliances That Shape Mexico

While cholos and cholas in some ways recall the pachucos and pachucas of World War II-era Los Angeles (and white Angelinos' fears of them), Rosas makes clear that pachuquismo was less about criminality and more centered on fashioning a distinctive identity in a whitening metropolis.