Corillo
Your crew — the fixed group of friends you go everywhere with, and by extension any tight little circle.
Related lesson: Puerto Rican Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
Salí con el corillo el sábado.
I went out with the crew on Saturday.
Ese es mi corillo de la universidad.
That's my uni crowd.
Se formó un corillo en la esquina.
A little crowd gathered on the corner.
What It Actually Means
El corillo is your crew: the four or six or ten people you actually see, distinct from amigos in general. It is collective and singular — el corillo llegó, todo el corillo — and it carries a strong sense of belonging, which is why mi corillo sounds warmer than any English equivalent except perhaps my lot.
There is a second, older and cooler use: a corillo can simply be a knot of people gathered somewhere, with a faint suggestion that they are up to something, or at least talking about someone. Context separates the two effortlessly.
Where It Comes From
A diminutive of corro, standard Spanish for a ring or circle of people — a corro is what forms when a crowd closes round a fight, a dancer or an argument. Spanish already had corrillo for a small huddle of people talking apart from the rest, usually with a whiff of gossip about it; Caribbean pronunciation, which routinely simplifies the double r, gives corillo. Puerto Rico then did the interesting part, promoting a word for a temporary huddle into a word for a permanent friendship group.
How Natives Use It
Youthful and warm, and now heavily reinforced by reggaetón, where el corillo is a standing subject — the crew arriving, the crew in the club, loyalty to the crew. Common shapes: el corillo completo (the whole gang, everyone came), janguear con el corillo (see janguear), corillo de siempre (the usual lot). It also works possessively for people outside your own set — el corillo de mi hermana — and it takes a mild affectionate diminutive of its own, corillito, for a very small group or a quiet plan.
Common Pitfall
Two things to watch. First, it can be used dismissively about other people’s groups: said with a certain tone, ese corillo implies a clique, or people who are not to be trusted, and in some contexts it edges towards a gang. Yours is mi corillo, warm; theirs may not be. Second, it is Puerto Rican and (increasingly, via music) Dominican, but it is not general Spanish: elsewhere you want mi grupo, la banda, los panas or Colombia’s el parche. And do not use it for colleagues — a corillo is chosen, not assigned.