Pololo / polola
Boyfriend / girlfriend — and pololear, the verb for going steady, which only Chile has.
Related lesson: Chilean Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
Te presento a mi polola, Javiera.
This is my girlfriend, Javiera.
Llevamos dos años pololeando.
We've been together two years.
Antes de pololear estuvimos como seis meses en un andar.
Before making it official we were sort of seeing each other for about six months.
What It Actually Means
A pololo is a boyfriend, a polola a girlfriend, and pololear is what they do: going steady, officially, as a recognized couple. The noun also gives pololeo (the relationship itself) and, in an older sense that survives among adults, pololo = a small side job.
Where It Comes From
From Mapudungun piulliu via Chilean Spanish pololo, the name of a beetle that hovers noisily around a light — or around a person. A suitor buzzing hopefully around someone was a pololo, and the metaphor stuck so firmly that Chile now has an entire relationship vocabulary built on an insect.
How Natives Use It
Precisely. Chile distinguishes andar con alguien (seeing each other, unofficial), pololear (going out, official), and being novios — which in Chile implies engaged, not merely dating. Getting these wrong is a real social misstep, not a grammar slip.
Common Pitfall
Outside Chile, novio/novia is the ordinary word for boyfriend/girlfriend, so Chileans abroad accidentally announce engagements and foreigners in Chile accidentally propose. See the dating and relationships lesson for the map of who says what where.