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Órale, the word for this episode of Caló is 'chaquetear.' It’s a verb that means to switch sides or betray your side. It comes from the English word,…

Women have made critical contributions to the sciences for centuries. But despite efforts to increase female participation in STEM – science, technology,…

Órale, ranfla is the featured word of this episode. It’s an endearing word for one’s car. Comparable words in English are jalopy and hot rod. It comes…

American lions, saber tooth tigers and short-faced bears, oh my! A day in Ice Age West Texas is terrifying to imagine. And now, West Texans can experience the Pleistocene past at a new exhibit at the Sibley Nature Center in Midland.

“They create a desert and call it peace,” a first-century Celtic chieftain said of the Roman army devastating his land, rousing his warriors to…

The word for this episode of Caló is apear. It’s a verb that means to get down from your high horse. It’s old Castilian for dismount and get a pié — on…

A team of botanists is researching the mysteries of the evening primrose flowers in our region, and across the West. And they’ve discovered a nocturnal drama of attraction and danger, in which scent plays a central role.

The Caló word for this episode is remangar, which means to steal. It comes from the Kalé, or Iberian Romaní, word for the same, mangar. A close-sounding word in Spanish is manga, which means sleeve. Since Spanish and the Iberian Romaní language are both of Indo-European origin, it is possible that sleeve and steal, as in put something under your sleeve, are of the same origin. To be sure, remangar in Rio Grande Caló is used in reference to light theft: only objects you can hide in your hand, sleeve, pocket, pant leg, or memory allow for a remango.

Today’s featured word, catear, comes directly and unchanged from the Kaló spoken by the Iberian Romani. In Rio Grande Caló, catear means to hit or beat up. It comes from the Kalé word for the same, cate. In modern Spanish, catear means to search. Did this word, like many Iberian Kaló words, come into Rio Grande Caló directly from the Romaní who migrated to the Americas, or did it first come into Spanish and brought to the Americas by the Spanish colonists? Either way, it’s in Caló now.

The word for this episode is trujir. It’s old Castilian, and in Caló it means to bring. The modern Spanish word for the same is traer.