Cotufa
Popcorn — and no other country calls it that.
Related lesson: Venezuelan Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
Compra unas cotufas antes de que empiece la película.
Buy some popcorn before the film starts.
¿Las quieres dulces o saladas?
Do you want them sweet or salted?
Pusimos cotufas en el microondas y nos quedamos viendo el partido.
We put popcorn in the microwave and stayed in to watch the match.
What It Actually Means
Cotufas are popcorn. That is the whole definition, and its value is entirely geographic: Mexico says palomitas, Argentina pochoclo, Chile cabritas, Peru canchita, Colombia crispetas or maíz pira, Spain palomitas again — and Venezuela says cotufas, alone. Ordering them correctly is a small, instant proof that you learned your Spanish somewhere specific.
Where It Comes From
The story every Venezuelan hears at school is that sacks of maize arrived from the United States stamped “corn to fry”, which locals ran together into cotufa. It is charming and it is folk etymology: cotufa is an old Spanish word for the tuber of the chufa or Jerusalem artichoke, current in Andalusia and the Canary Islands long before any maize sacks — and the Canaries supplied Venezuela with several centuries of immigrants and a great deal of its vocabulary. That is the boring, well-supported route.
How Natives Use It
Plural, and in the two settings popcorn lives in: the cinema and the sofa. Venezuelan cinemas ask ¿dulces o saladas?, because sweet popcorn is not the eccentric option it is in Britain. The word carries no register at all — it is simply the noun, used by children, presidents and everyone in between.
Common Pitfall
The only real trap is assuming it travels. Ask for cotufas in Bogotá or Buenos Aires and you will get a blank look, or a Venezuelan behind the counter grinning at you. In the other direction, learners sometimes hear it as a slang word and hesitate to use it in formal contexts — no need; there is no other Venezuelan word for popcorn to switch up to.