chingon

[ cheen-gohn ]

adjective

1. awesome, admirable, or impressive:

   It’s a very chingon movie, lots of action and great effects.

   I’m new to the site and hoping to meet some real chingon people in the chat.

2. (especially of a man) competent, intelligent, bold, and assertive, sometimes to the point of being tough or aggressive and intimidating:

   That cop was such a little dude, but he was acting all chingon!

noun

1. someone, especially a Latino man, who is competent, intelligent, bold, assertive, and successful:

   Come party on one of our spacious patios, and live life like a chingon!

   He began as a graffiti artist and has now founded a hub to support other emerging artists—a real chingon.

2. someone, especially a Latino man, who is tough or aggressive and intimidating:

   Now that you got all that anger out, had your say, and validated yourself as a super gangster chingon, can we move on and get to the point?

Word History and Origins

Origin of chingon¹

First recorded in 1975–80; from Spanish, from ching(ar) “to bother, have intercourse with” (from Caló čingarár “to fight,” from Romani; compare Welsh Romani čiṅār “a quarrel”; perhaps cognate with Hindi ciṅghāṛnā “to scream, screech”) + -ón, augmentative suffix ( -oon ( def ) )