pinche

[ peen-chey ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

damned; lousy; blasted:
With all this self-promotion you sound like a pinche public radio station during a fund drive!
cheap or stingy.

adverb

damned; blasted (used as an intensifier before an adjective):
They don't realize how pinche hard it is to learn to speak English.

noun

Sometimes Disparaging. a menial worker, such as one who works in a kitchen.
a cheap or stingy person; penny pincher; tightwad.

pinche

[ peen-chey ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a tamarin ( Saguinus oedipus ) native to Colombia with a long, manelike tuft of white hair: now endangered.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of pinche¹

First recorded in 1970–75; from Spanish, adjective and noun derivative of pinchar “to poke, prick,” variation (with influence of picar “to bite, sting”) of punchar “to punch,” from Vulgar Latin punctiāre (unrecorded), verb derivative of Latin pūnctus “a prick, sting”; puncture ( def )

Origin of pinche²

First recorded in 1740–50; from French pinché, of uncertain origin