0

This is a Spanish slang word, usually used despectively which refers to certain type of people with usually extreme leftist or progressist ideas (meaning with progressist ideas things like being pro-abortion, pro-multiculturalism pro-inmigration pro-feminism etc) that are seen on street playing a flute and near to a dog, which usually have looks which don't match with what people consider serious. It's also commonly used as an insult for people that show that extreme ideas whatever their looks are. I'm leaving this link to some google images to show the meaning more graphically.

I'd like to know which would be the word that describes those meanings, or maybe the different words that exist for each one (maybe one describes the person and another one is used as an insult).

For example:

For the person

That guy over there that's playing the flute is a [searched word]

And for an insult

Your ideas are extremely ridiculous. You are just a [searched word] that doesn't even shower himself!

Thanks for your help.

9
  • 1
    I disagree with your translation. Progressive ideas are not extreme left ideas. Those same people in Spanish would be called marginales, too. There is no exact translation. Street person or street musician comes to mind. And that's disrespectful and does not shower, fyi.
    – Lambie
    Commented Oct 25, 2016 at 23:16
  • Maybe I'm not using the term in a not proper manner I'm editing to give a better explanation.
    – moih
    Commented Oct 25, 2016 at 23:20
  • 1
    These are people who live on the fringes of society. To ascribe political views to them seems a bit of a reach. Maybe they just can't make it in society. Who's to say what their political ideas are. Surely, "they" are not all the same and it is a mistake to paint them with a broad brush like you seem to be doing.
    – Lambie
    Commented Oct 25, 2016 at 23:22
  • I didn't pretend to be disrespectful I just wanted to make clear that it's used as an insult.
    – moih
    Commented Oct 25, 2016 at 23:23
  • 1
    I think they can be considered as a modern version of the hippies with their ideas going in the same direction respect to society standards, so I don't think it's out of place to relate them to that type of ideas.
    – moih
    Commented Oct 25, 2016 at 23:31

2 Answers 2

2

I think it's the generalized common use of the word hippie:

(especially in the 1960s) a person of unconventional appearance, typically having long hair and wearing beads, associated with a subculture involving a rejection of conventional values and the taking of hallucinogenic drugs. (GOOG)

In more modern usage has been a derogatory term for leftists, as evidenced in the more "modern" urbandictionary.com:

The movement, then and now, is considered a sub-culture by sociologists that associates itself with the left in all its political opinions.

The unwashed, unkempt part definitely fits that groove, man.

0
1

With help of a search for "perroflauta etymology":

I found this mention in a book (Fusion Economics by L. Brahm, Springer 2014) also:

They called occupiers on the street perroflautas, a derogatory term meaning "young beggar with a dog."

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .