Bacán can be associated with elegance or luxury.
The term bacán is used in different ways depending on the geographical region. It is a concept used in colloquial language, in informal contexts.
In countries like Cuba , Colombia , the Dominican Republic and Chile , cool is an adjective that describes what is positive, pleasant or great . For example: “This television program is great! It's a lot of fun” , “I tried hard and achieved my goal, it was great” , “For me it's great to have returned to my country after so many years” .
Bacán can also be used, in some nations , with reference to an individual of great physical attractiveness : “That model is cool, I would love to have dinner with him” , “I don't think that dressing that way makes you look more cool” , “When you were young It was great: I had no shortage of suitors.”
Bacán according to the region
A curious fact is that this notion is used in some areas to name the man who is supported by a woman , but in others to refer to the man who is in charge of paying for his partners' expenses . That is to say, a cool guy can be a man who is supported by his wife or who supports his wife depending on the country: “Jorge is a cool guy: he is at the bar all day while his wife struggles to bring money home,” “ “My uncle was a badass, he never let his girlfriends work.”
In Argentina , Uruguay and Colombia , likewise, the individual who has a lot of money or an elegant place is called cool: “My neighbor is a cool guy who has three cars and always spends his summers in the Caribbean,” “Don't be cool with me, I I know that debts overwhelm you” , “Last night we had dinner at a very nice restaurant that cost us a fortune” .
In some countries, cool is synonymous with great.
Etymology of the term
According to research carried out by Hugo Gonzáles Montalvo for a blog titled Bacanería Planetaria , the word bacán derives from Genoese Latin baccan . This theory is supported by some lunguists from the University of Genoa, who also affirm that baccan comes from baculo , an Indo-European word that can be defined as "staff of command used in ceremonies that symbolizes moral authority ."
If we focus, therefore, on the Latin that was used in Genoa, we find the ancient word baccan , which meant "ship captain, father of a family, patron." In turn, it is the root of bacanería , which according to a Milanese dictionary made by Francesco Cherubini and published in 1839 can be used as a synonym for " joy ."
The Italians who emigrated to Argentina took with them the term baccan . Since they used it very often in everyday speech, it did not take long for Argentines to understand its meaning and adapt the word to their language through lunfardo, which began as a happy or "playful" form that the language adopted in Buenos Aires. Aires.
Historical evolution of the word bacán
At the beginning of the 20th century, as a word for Buenos Aires lunfardo it appeared in various tango lyrics that, given the success of this musical genre, transcended the country's borders and reached the entire continent. When used in the masculine, it referred to the man who, due to his economic ease, could support a lover; in feminine, on the other hand, it described a woman whose life had become very comfortable thanks to the help of a man.
Unfortunately, the machismo present in these meanings is not uncommon in our language, especially in the versions that were spoken decades and centuries ago. Both examples, by the way, can be seen in the tango titled " Hand in Hand ", published in 1923. Its arrival in Latin America led to the meanings mentioned above, among others, and today the Internet merges them as a result. of communication between people from all over the world.