If you have used the online search tool of the Diccionario de Americanismos you might have noticed that the results include many abbreviations and symbols.
The Diccionario de Americanismos online is an exact copy of what you will see in the actual printed dictionary and they use abbreviations to maximize space. Understating them will lead you to a better interpretation of the word and definition. Unfortunately, the website of Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española did not publish those on its website (at least I did not find them); and if they had done so, it would be in Spanish only.
So here I will share the list of the most common abbreviations and symbols used in the Diccionario de Americanismos.
Abbreviations for country names
Ar: Argentina
Bo: Bolivia
Ch: Chile
Co: Colombia
CR: Costa Rica
Cu: Cuba
ES: El Salvador
EU: Estados Unidos
Gu: Guatemala
Ho: Honduras
Mx: Mexico
Pa: Panama
Pe: Peru
PR: Puerto Rico
Py: Paraguay
RD: República Dominicana (Dominican Republic)
Ur: Uruguay
Ve: Venezuela
Abbreviations to point out that a word is used in a region
You will find that sometimes the country abbreviation is followed by another abbreviation like this: Co:S. That means that the word is used in a part of the country. In this example Co:S means “Colombia: Sur” or southern Colombia. These are the abbreviations that point out a region or area:
C: Centro (Center)
E: Este (East)
N: Norte (North)
NE: Noreste (Northeast)
NO: Noroeste (Northwest)
S: Sur (South)
SE: Sureste (Southeast)
Other useful abbreviations and symbols
~: this symbol is used to abbreviate phrases that use the particular word you searched. Substitute the (~) symbol with the word to form the complete phrase. For example, under the word guagua you will find other phrases that use that word as follow: ~ de pecho = guagua de pecho
♦: words after this symbol are synonyms
desp.: despectivo (derogatory)
espon.: espontáneo (spontaneous)
euf.: eufemismo (euphemism)
juv.: juvenil (juvenile)
m.: masculino (masculine)
f.: femenino (feminine)
interj.: interjección (interjection)
obsol.: obsolescente (obsolete)
p.u.: poco usado (not often used)
pop.: popular
rur.: rural
vulg.: vulgar
Diccionario de Americanismos Online Step by Step Video
Check out my step by step guide and video on how to use the the Diccionario de Americanismos online tool here:
Check out these other Spanish Slang Dictionary articles.