Idiosincrasia del Valle central chileno:

diccionario de neologismos y locuciones usuales

Abstract

Dictionaries are the inventory of a culture, says León-Portilla. In this article, we apply this principle to a particular cultural setting in Chile: the Maule region, characterized by agrarian traditions built onasymmetrical power relationships based on vertical reciprocity, a configuration that can be traced back to its past as a stronghold of the latifundia economic and social model. We argue that this cultural setting has left concrete lexical marks in the language, in the form of words and expressions devised to avoid direct reference to “taboo topics” -issues related to sexual matters and power in personal relationships, among others.