We argentinians do this a lot. Guess we inherited it from the French (There were big waves of immigration in the 2nd half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th from all over Europe).
There are a lot of examples of this in tango lyrics, that are also rather complex to decipher because they are "lunfardo" (local slang) words.
A few examples:
Lleca: calle (street)
Jermu: Mujer (woman)
Goman: Mango ("No tengo un goman", "I have no money left". "mango" is slang for money. No idea of it's origins.
then there's "ortiba" that is a prime example of the transformation of meaning. It originates in the word "batidor" (whisk) that is a slang word for snitch.
But then it transformed to indicate anybody that is not cool, or behaving in an uncool way:
"Che, ¿salimos esta noche?" (Dude, will we go out tonight?)
"No puedo, tengo que estudiar" (I can't, I have to study)
"Dale, ¡No seas ortiba!" (C'mon, don't be so uncool!)
There are a lot of examples of this in tango lyrics, that are also rather complex to decipher because they are "lunfardo" (local slang) words.
A few examples:
Lleca: calle (street) Jermu: Mujer (woman) Goman: Mango ("No tengo un goman", "I have no money left". "mango" is slang for money. No idea of it's origins.
then there's "ortiba" that is a prime example of the transformation of meaning. It originates in the word "batidor" (whisk) that is a slang word for snitch. But then it transformed to indicate anybody that is not cool, or behaving in an uncool way:
"Che, ¿salimos esta noche?" (Dude, will we go out tonight?) "No puedo, tengo que estudiar" (I can't, I have to study) "Dale, ¡No seas ortiba!" (C'mon, don't be so uncool!)