Janguear
To hang out — English "hang out" naturalised as a fully conjugated Spanish verb, with its own noun, "el jangueo".
Related lesson: Puerto Rican Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
¿Vamos a janguear esta noche?
Shall we go out tonight?
Nos pasamos jangueando todo el verano.
We spent the whole summer hanging out.
El jangueo se acabó a las tres.
The night out wound up at three.
What It Actually Means
Janguear is to hang out: to be out with friends with no particular objective. It covers everything from sitting on a balcony with beers to a full night in Santurce, and its vagueness is a feature — janguear says the company matters and the itinerary does not. The noun el jangueo is just as common and slightly bigger: a jangueo is the outing itself, the crowd it involves and the state of mind that goes with it.
Where It Comes From
Straight from English to hang out, borrowed whole and then handed a Spanish conjugation, which is what Puerto Rico does with English verbs rather than leaving them as quotations. The spelling reflects the sound: initial j for the English /h/, gu- for the /g/ before a front vowel. You will also see janguiar, and both spellings are equally native. Its siblings are everywhere on the island — lonchar (to have lunch), parquear, friquearse, chatear — the product of a century of political attachment to the United States and, just as importantly, of families that move constantly between the island and New York or Orlando.
How Natives Use It
Fully regular, first conjugation, no surprises: jangueo, jangueas, janguea, jangueamos, janguean; past jangueé, jangueaste, jangueó. It goes with con for people and en for places — janguear con el corillo, janguear en la playa — and it pairs almost automatically with el corillo, which is who you do it with. It has crossed the water: Dominicans use it freely, and it is standard in Puerto Rican communities on the mainland. Young, informal, entirely unremarkable in speech among friends.
Common Pitfall
Keep it out of writing that anyone official will read, and be aware that the older and more purist end of the island regards this whole family of verbs as evidence of a language under pressure — using janguear in front of a Spanish teacher of a certain generation invites a short lecture. Do not stretch it to mean to date or to hook up; that is not what it says, and Puerto Rican Spanish has other words for it. Elsewhere in Latin America you want salir or pasar el rato — outside the Caribbean, janguear marks you instantly as having learned your Spanish in the wrong ocean.