cholo

[ choh-loh ]

noun,plural cho·los.Chiefly Southwestern U.S.

(especially among Mexican Americans) a teenage boy who is a member of a street gang.
Usually Disparaging. a term used to refer to a Mexican or Mexican American.

a mestizo of Spanish America.

Origin of cholo

First recorded in 1850–55; from Mexican Spanish: “mestizo, peasant,” possibly a shortening of Cholollán (from Nahuatl Cholōllān, modern Cholula ), a city-state in pre-Columbian Mexico

usage note For cholo

When used of a Mexican or Mexican American, the term cholo usually refers disparagingly to an immigrant who is considered to be low-class and poorly educated. However, cholo is also a term of self-reference used by Mexican American youths.

How to use cholo in a sentence

The cholo leads us into South America, where for the present; we leave it.
Opuscula | Robert Gordon Latham
The slight wound was followed by such severe inflammation and swelling that the features of the cholo were not recognisable.
Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests | J. J. von Tschudi
The youngsters of the pueblo were the bane of cholo's existence and the torment of his infirmity and old age.
Sixty Years in Southern California 1853-1913 | Harris Newmark
I'll have that cholo and Rondeau sent down with the next trainload of logs to the company hospital.
The Valley of the Giants | Peter B. Kyne
How long are you going to tolerate the presence of this healthy lot of cholo loafers and grafters, Farrel?
The Pride of Palomar | Peter B. Kyne

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