Güey
Güey
Mexican colloquialism
Güey (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈwej]; also spelled guey, wey or we) is a word in colloquial Mexican Spanish that is commonly used to refer to any person without using their name. Though typically (and originally) applied only to males, it can also be used for females (although when using slang, women would more commonly refer to another woman as "chava" [young woman] or "vieja" [old lady]).[1] It is used roughly the same as "dude" in modern American English.[2] It is derived from the term buey, meaning ox. It was used to insult men as cuckolds,[1] because oxen are slow, castrated bulls. Over time, the initial /b/ underwent a consonant mutation to a /g/, often elided, resulting in the modern pronunciation "wey". The word can be used as an insult, like "fool", although, due to its extremely high frequency of use in a multitude of contexts, it has lost much of its offensive character, becoming a colloquialism.