Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Abaratar

Abaratar (ah-BAR-at-AWR) literally means to make something less expensive. On the streets of the most polluted city in the world (Mexico City), abaratar means to take advantage of someone through physical violence or the threat thereof, to bully.

Unfortunately, you will most likely hear of somebody that was abaratado rather than from somebody who abarató another person:

Fulano: Dos culeros me abarataron al bajar de la micro.
John Doe: Two jerks theatened me and took advantage of me as I stepped off the bus.

2 comments:

  1. It may be heard in its passive form, but the colon you placed after that clause in your post implied that an example of this passive usage would follow.

    It didn't. "Me abarataron" ain't passive.

    Love your blog, etc.

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