Fome
Boring, dull, lame — a Chilean word with no good equivalent anywhere else.
Related lesson: Chilean Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
La película estuvo fome.
The film was dull.
Qué fome que no puedas venir.
What a shame you can't come.
No seái fome, quédate un rato más.
Don't be boring, stay a bit longer.
What It Actually Means
Fome is boring, dull, flat, lame. Chileans consider it untranslatable and they have a point: it covers a boring film, a disappointing piece of news, and a person who sucks the life out of a room, all with one syllable of quiet disdain.
Where It Comes From
Disputed. The likeliest account traces it to fome meaning hungry or meagre (from Latin fames, hunger, still alive in Portuguese fome) — the sense of thin, insubstantial, lacking. Chilean Spanish preserved it and gave it a modern job.
How Natives Use It
Predicatively with estar for a one-off (“la fiesta estuvo fome”) and with ser for a permanent condition (“mi primo es fome”). It has a noun, fomedad, and an intensifier that every Chilean teenager reaches for: “más fome que chupar un clavo” — duller than sucking a nail.
Common Pitfall
It doesn’t travel. Say fome in Madrid or Mexico City and you’ll get a blank look; the words you want there are aburrido, cutre or soso. Also, don’t confuse it with flojo (lazy) — a fome person isn’t idle, just deadly dull.