pachuco

Noun

pachuco (countable and uncountable, plural pachucos)

1. (US, countable) A Mexican American, especially a juvenile delinquent in the Los Angeles area.
   • Now they saw that Terry was Mexican, a Pachuco wildcat; and that her boy was worse than that.1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 13, in On the Road, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, part 1
   • I moved farther and farther into the Chicano community. I took Spanish in school and found willing tutors among my friends, who taught me a real-life version of the standard textbook language. I began to dress and comb my hair in the pachuco style of the day. I acquired the social customs and...1984 February 4, David Morris, “Different Origins: Joto Güero del West Side”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 28, page 15
2. (uncountable) An argot spoken by that group, sometimes known as caló.
   • Like the zoot suit, the Pachuco caló was adopted by a large part of the Chicano youth who did not, in essence, identify themselves as Pachucos.1974, Linda Fine Katz, The Evolution of the Pachuco Language and Culture, Los Angeles: University of California, page 41