Chibolo
Kid, youngster — the Peruvian word for anyone visibly younger than the speaker.
Related lesson: Peruvian Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
Nos conocemos desde chibolos, del barrio.
We've known each other since we were kids, from the neighbourhood.
Los chibolos de ahora paran todo el día con el celular.
Kids these days spend all day on their phones.
Cuando era chibola, mi abuela me llevaba a la feria los domingos.
When I was a little girl, my grandmother took me to the market on Sundays.
What It Actually Means
Chibolo / chibola is a kid — a child or a teenager, anyone young enough for the speaker to feel senior to. It covers the ground Spain gives to chaval, Mexico to chamaco and Argentina to pibe: affectionate from parents, nostalgic in desde chibolos, and mildly dismissive when aimed at an adult acting young.
Where It Comes From
An Andean regionalism of uncertain parentage, in Peruvian mouths since at least the nineteenth century; the dictionaries list it for Peru and pockets of Ecuador, and etymologists have offered everything from Quechua to an old Spanish dialect word without settling it. Whatever its passport, it is now among the first ten words that mark a speaker as Peruvian.
How Natives Use It
Neutrally for actual children (los chibolos del colegio), warmly for one’s own past (de chibolo yo vivía en Trujillo), and pointedly for adults — es un chibolo para ti means he is too young for you, and chibolero/chibolera is the person who dates much younger partners, a word Peruvian gossip could not function without.
Common Pitfall
It does not travel north: in Central America chibola can be a fizzy drink or a marble, and in most of the continent it is nothing at all. Use it in Peru; elsewhere, revert to niño or the local species — chaval, chamaco, pibe — and note that calling a grown Peruvian chibolo to his face is a comment on his maturity, not his age.