Che
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- For other uses, see Che (disambiguation).
Che is a Spanish interjection used commonly in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, some parts of Bolivia, Costa Rica, and also in Valencia, Spain (equivalent to the Valencian xe or che, or Ebro-delta Catalan xa: the Valencia CF soccer team is known as "Los Che" or "the Che team".). It is an exclamation, often used to get attention or express surprise, and so it corresponds in some ways to exclamations such as "hey!", "eh!" and "wow!". It is also used in a vocative sense as though it meant "friend", and thus corresponds in some ways to expressions such as "mate", "pal", "man", "dude" that can be found in the speech of various English speakers. Like these words, it may be used both before or after a phrase: "Man, this is some good beer", or, "Let's go get a beer, man." ("Che, está buena la cerveza. Vamos a buscar unas cervezas, che.")
The word has also spread to southern parts of Portuguese-speaking Brazil.
In other Latin American countries, the term Che is used to refer to someone from Argentina. For example, Ernesto "Che" Guevara earned his nickname from his frequent use of this expression, which, particularly to his Cuban comrades, was a curious feature of his idiolect. Guevara is popularly known simply as el Che in Latin American countries. This sort of appellation based on utterance is common when persons from different cultures interact (see, for example, les goddams).
Several tango song names start with the word che (e.g. Che, bandoneón and Che, papusa, oí). Also, Cheeee! was a catchphrase used by the late José Marrone when impersonating the clown Pepitito.
The origin of this word is unclear. It may have derived from several native South American languages: in Guarani language che means simply "I" or "my", in Tehuelche and Puelche (Pampa) languages che means "man", and in Mapudungun language (Mapuche) it means "people". Others, however, argue that the word che is derived from the archaic Spanish word ce, used to call someone's attention.
Further reading
- La trama (http://www.ciudadseva.com/textos/cuentos/esp/borges/trama.htm), very short story by J.L. Borges illustrating use of che (in Spanish)