Spanish Slang For Gossip (10 Examples!)

The Spanish love a bit of gossip just like anyone else.

Whether you’re in Mexico or Spain, there are plenty of slang terms to describe the kind of gossip you’re talking about, too.

Today, we’re going to look at some of the most common slang terms for gossip in Spanish, so let’s get started.

Chisme

This is the most common Spanish term for slang, so common in fact that it treads the line between being slang and just being standard, accepted Spanish.

In any case, chisme or chismes is Spanish slang for gossip, for tattling, scandals and whisperings.

It is used throughout the Spanish speaking world, from Mexico to Chile to Spain.

The term has its origins in Ancient Greek and Latin. Latin got its word for scheme, schisma, from Greek, and Spanish in term got their word for gossip from Latin.

So, it’s “gossip” in the sense of schemes and plots.

Chismorreo

Following on from that, another slang form of chisme is chismorreo.

This again has the sense of gossip and scandal, more in the sense of the event itself which leads to the gossip.

The “gossip” itself is people talking about the thing, but in Spanish slang, it can also be the scandalous event itself. Chismorreo again means scandal.

 This word is what’s called a deverbal of the word chismorrear, which is the verb form.

It comes from the same root as chisme, and is mostly just a variation of the same term.

Chismoso

Another form of these two slang terms is chismoso, which has a slightly different meaning.

A chismoso is a person, someone who loves gossip; you might say a “gossipmonger” or someone who likes to whisper around town a lot.

It’s someone who talks too much. However, to a lesser extent, it can also just mean the act of gossiping.

So, the root is the same, it’s just taken on a slightly different grammatical sense.

Habladurías

One thing that definitely goes hand-in-hand, linguistically, with the idea of gossip, is the broader idea of “chatter”.

This kind of speech is, to an extent, historically associated with the kind of people who might gossip and chatter—i.e. women.

This is how we get the term habladurías, which is a form of hablo, which means to speak or talk. Habladurías is about gossip and chatter.

It has the same sense as “hearsay”, and is simply derived from the root habla.

Charla

Another one that might more broadly be used to refer to simple chatter, next we have charla.

Again, the best comparative word in English is simply chatter or small talk.

Again, though, this kind of chatter, even in English, can often be just as heavily associated with gossip.

This is a backformation of the verb charlar, which again just means to chat.

That, in turn, derived from the Italian ciarlare, which, importantly, specifically meant to chatter in gossip.

Comidilla

Next we have another pure noun slang form for gossip, comidilla.

This is one you would use to talk about the gossip that is travelling around town.

It’s not the act of gossiping or the people who are gossiping, it’s the specific rumors going around.

So, you might also say “rumor or “byword” are good translations for this.

Strangely, it derives from the word comida, meaning food.

The sense may be of a rumor that is being “swallowed” by the local people.

Murumador

 Though perhaps somewhat archaic, you will probably recognize this term as a variation of the English murmur.

Not that it was derived from English, but the sense, in one way, is quite the same.

Not in the sense of literal murmuring, but again in the idea that rumors travel through soft murmurs and whispers.

It derives from Old French in Spanish as it does in Englsh, from murmure, having the meaning of the murmuring sound.

Comadre/Comadreo

Our next word again has a very specific literal meaning, and it’s easy to see where the slang sense derives from.

On the one hand, comadre is simply another word for gossip, in the noun form.

But it also means “midwife”. The idea being that midwives spread gossip.

A comadre is a gossipmonger.

It comes from the Latin originally, with mater meaning mother, and becoming commater by the 15^th Century.

Parloteo

This one is one that might have the strongest sense, as it is the kind of thing someone might say to discourage idle chatter and babble.

Parloteo means chatter, prattle, babbling—and with that, always, goes gossip.

It comes from the French, originally, parlar meaning to speak.

The Spanish suffix oteo makes it the derogatory form.

Mala lengua

Finally, we have mala lengua.

This is another one which is most simply just translated to gossip.

It means rumors being spread, people talking about someone or something, chattering and whispering about things they might have heard.

It literally translates to “bad tongue”, so you can see the sense.

It refers to letting the tongue slip with rumors and gossip, spreading things you don’t really know anything about with that mala lengua.

There are plenty of ways to refer to gossip in Spanish slang, then.

Gossip itself is rather an ambiguous word in some ways, since some use it just to refer to basic chatter.

So, depending on the context, any of these words may or may not specifically refer to gossip.

I suppose it mostly depends on what is being chatted about!

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