General
quilombo
What does quilombo mean?
Historically and still in older usage, a brothel.
"El barrio tenia mas de un quilombo. (The neighborhood had more than one brothel.)"
Origin
Lunfardo with African roots, documented by the Academia Portena del Lunfardo; from Kimbundu 'kilombo' (a settlement, applied to maroon communities in Brazil), which in the Rio de la Plata came to mean brothel and then chaos. The semantic drift is well attested.
Frequently asked questions
What does quilombo mean?
It means a chaotic mess or uproar; historically it also meant a brothel.
Where did quilombo come from?
From the Kimbundu/Bantu word 'kilombo', which named maroon settlements before shifting meaning in South America.
Is quilombo offensive?
In its 'chaos' sense it's everyday informal slang; the brothel sense is older and coarser.
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