Word or slang?
I suppose would every culture has slang words in its language. However, I'm uncertain if in fact the word or phrase I've heard before is slang or not. I tried searching it here but came up empty. I am not sure how it's spelled but it sounds like ( Ban-de-tow ) which I'm pretty sure is a term of endearment. Is this recognizable to anyone as a word or slang in spanish? If so, how is it defined?
6 Answers
I believe I can tell how the word is meant by the tone of the conversation. English is being spoken and then that term. I searched the words " bandito " and " pobrecito " The nearest word to those two words is "pobreto." My question again is either word a slang term of the original word? I thought maybe "bendito" because it's an affectionate word but since this word is being spoken by a Puerto Ricana to her little girl during an kind hearted conversation. The word could be "bandito." But then I'm considering female/male forms of the word. I know the word "bandejo" it is not that.
Here a clue, there a clue. A mother certainly might call her little girl "blessed". And if that is the word, then your question is answered: it is not slang.
Just a last thought, though: are you sure you are hearing "bendito" rather than "bendita". I ask because the mother would surely use the latter, which is feminine, for a little girl.
I recall a teaching system that used certain english words to teach spanish. I remember its advertisement suggesting the spanish word " aqui " can be learned by the english ( a key). Perhaps not a very popular technique, crude, slightly awkward or even annoying, I haven't used it, but it did sell for a while. I'm not attempting to effect words in spanish using english I only became lost in it's spelling. I suppose I was close, I searched the word (Banditto). But (bendito) I believe may be the word I'm searching. I thought it might be a slang word.
I remember "bandito" from a few Puerto Rican friends many years ago. It meant the same as "pobrecito," which was a way of saying "you poor thing" in sympathy.
You can try "bandido" but bandit is hardly a word of endearment.
By the way, will you know even if one of us happens to guess right, anyway???
If you can't speak Spanish, whatever you heard, described by you, would sound like the diagram of a computer circuit described by a caveman: stains all over the place. The differences between Spanish and English phonology make these sort of phonetic approximations a guesswork, and practically a joke. You can't represent Spanish using English representations, because the result will not even be 30% similar to the original. Your "Ban-de-tow" could be "bendito" (blessed, saintly), but we can only guess, because those letters pronounced in English will never resemble anything similar to the Spanish language. Of course, the same principle can be applied in the opposite direction.
