A fine Cuban donkey
I have discovered in Spanish that the word for 'cigar' is very similar in pronounciation to 'donkey'. Can you clarify this one for us. Thanks as I do not want to say that my husband wishes to smoke a donkey.
Ed. note: Indeed, the Spanish word el puro sounds a little bit like el burro, donkey. It literally means 'pure' as some kinds of cigars were called puro cigarro, pure cigar, or simply puro. But your husband could avoid any confusion by simply asking for un cigarro.
Sent by: Janet
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Porro it is the name of a Colombian rhythm; in some countries as Venezuela and Colombia a cigar is a thicker and stronger type of cigarette; puro it is well known, but not very used. The correct word for joint in Spanish is: articulación.
In Portuguese, the word charuto means the cigar made with the entire leaves spinned on a cylinder, like Cubans ones, while the word cigarro means a cigarrete with a filter.
Whilst living in Spain, I enjoyed many good meals. One evening, I returned to a bar where fortunately I was well known and asked for una copa y un porro to finish the evening nicely. The bar went very quiet and Elena the owner asked me again what I had said. This time I indicated with two fingers to my lips in a smoking mimic. I could not understand their puzzlement until the lights went on in Elena's eyes: ¡Un puro! I, of course, then learnt that crisp pronunciation of vowels was important - un porro is a joint!
You'll often hear ciggies just called tabaco as in ¿Tienes tabaco? for "can you let me have a cigarette, please?" and not be referring to loose baccy for rolling your own.
I agree with Germán, cigarro is slang for cigarrillo (cigarrette), puro or habano is cigar.
In fact, cigarro is slang for cigarette and is rarely used to mean cigar. If you want a fine Cuban cigar, you can ask for a habano, otherwise puro is the most widely understood.
In Cuba, we call the cigar leaves and the actual cigars: 'tabaco'. If you wanted expensive, famous cigars, you could refer to 'puros' or 'habanos'. Cigarretes are called, 'cigarros'. I don't know the slang version because I don't smoke!
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O Susana...the joint to which David made reference is a marijuana cigarette.
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