Nica
A Nicaraguan — the short, warm, everyday word Nicaraguans use about themselves instead of the official "nicaragüense".
Related lesson: Nicaraguan Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
Vos sos nica, ¿verdad? Se te nota en el hablado.
You're Nicaraguan, aren't you? You can hear it in the way you talk.
Aquí en Miami hay un montón de nicas.
There are loads of Nicaraguans here in Miami.
La comida nica es sencilla pero bien sabrosa.
Nicaraguan food is simple but really tasty.
What It Actually Means
Nica is nicaragüense with the last three syllables removed: a Nicaraguan, said by Nicaraguans about Nicaraguans, and by their neighbours about them. It is a noun (un nica, los nicas) and an adjective (la comida nica), it does not change for gender, and in Nicaragua itself it carries nothing but affection — the national brand of rum, the national anything, is happily nica.
Where It Comes From
Straight clipping, of the kind Spanish does constantly to long demonyms — the same instinct that gives porteño speakers un ruso for anything vaguely Slavic or turns norteamericano into gringo at speed. The full form, nicaragüense, is the one that trips learners: it needs the diaeresis on the u (ü), because gue without those two dots is pronounced “gue”, and the word is ni-ca-ra-GÜEN-se with the u audible. Write nicaraguense and you have technically written a different word; write nica and you have avoided the problem entirely, which may be part of the appeal.
How Natives Use It
Constantly and proudly, alongside pinolero, which is the same self-description with maize in it. Nicaragüense belongs to passports, news bulletins, the national anthem and the football commentator’s first sentence; nica belongs to everything after that. There is no register problem inside the country: presidents use it, adverts use it, grandmothers use it.
Common Pitfall
Watch the border. In Costa Rica, which has received large-scale Nicaraguan migration for decades, nica is often the word in which resentment gets expressed — the term itself is neutral, but the tone attached to it frequently is not. A Nicaraguan calling themselves nica is warmth; a stranger in San José saying it about someone else may be doing something else entirely. As a foreigner, the safe move is to use it about food, music and rum, and to reach for nicaragüense — diaeresis and all — when you are talking about people you do not know.