Thursday, February 5, 2009

Word of the Day: Vacilón

Vacilón is a very common Costa Rican word for 'fun'. The verb vacilar is also very common, which most often means 'to kid' (transitive as 'to kid someone' or intransitive as 'to kid around'). Sometimes vacilar is used in the context of a man or woman "playing" someone of the opposite sex. This might involve showing interest in someone for some purpose (often sex), without actually having true feelings or intentions.

In formal Spanish vacilar has the same meaning that 'to vacillate' does in English. If you try to convey this meaning with vacilar you will likely get confused looks from ticos.

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