The idea of churre is used in some Peruvian regions to refer to a girl or a boy.
The word churre is a regional term ( regionalismo ) used mainly in certain regions of northern Peru , such as Piura . This concept is used to refer to boys and girls , often in a derogatory way. For example: “That churre didn't behave well and I had to punish him,” “The churre disrespected me.”
The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) , for its part, mentions three possible meanings of the word churre. On the one hand, it refers to the thick, dirty goo that runs from a greasy thing. The term is also used to refer to that which is similar to that grease . Finally, the RAE dictionary points out that, in Cuba , accumulated dirt is called churre.
Vargas Llosa and the term churre
The renowned Peruvian writer (naturalized Spanish) Mario Vargas Llosa has been one of the writers who has used the word churre in his stories. In his story “The Bosses,” which is set at the San Miguel School in Piura during the 1950s , Vargas Llosa wrote: “They began to argue among themselves. We encouraged the most excited ones, flattering them: 'Well, churre. You're not a faggot.'” In this way, the author shows the great influence that the local culture had on him when, on two occasions, he settled to reside in northern Peru.
And the word churre is the most prominent and common Piuranism in the speech of northern Peru . Already in 1949 and 1950 there are examples in the works of Martha Hildebrandt and Miguel Justino , respectively. Justino points out that it is used to talk about "little boys and men" , something that can help us understand its etymology.
The term churre is used especially in northern Peru.
The possible influence of Quechua
Some scholars, including José María Enguita and Esteban Puig , stated at the time that the word churre is related to churi , from Quechua, which can be translated as " manly son, brave, macho." However, there is not much chance that in a region where it is known that the Quechua influence is much lower than in others such as Arequipa , Ayacucho or Cusco .
Another point to take into account to discard this theory is that the Quechuisms that have simple intervocalic vibrating came to our language without the consonant being modified, as we can notice in the terms zara or sura ("corn"), which we receive from Quechua as jora , with a single R. In this way, if churre were another Quechuism it would probably be written chure .
Other considerations about the concept of churre
Everything indicates that the origin of this word is found in the homonymous word whose meaning is mentioned above as "dirty and thick grease." In this we are dealing with a noun related to the verb chorrear . In fact, the well-known dessert called churro has the same origin, since it is made with a dough that is molded like a jet. To support this possibility we can point out that a child who drools or who drops some liquid he is drinking from his mouth is also called churre.
The aforementioned Martha Hildebrandt and also the journalist Carlos Robles Rázuri had this same opinion regarding the etymology of churre, as the latter indicates in an article of his from 1982 in which he points out that it is used to talk about "a child between two and perhaps twelve years old whose personal hygiene is not very careful and who does not dress well, although it can apply to any boy of that age range.
On the other hand, it should be noted that Cubans give this word an additional use and call watered-down coffee “agua de churre” or “agua de chirre,” once again reinforcing the idea of “something that drips.”