A street tough who acts brave and aggressive but has nothing real behind the posturing. In Argentina and Uruguay, the 'compadrito' swaggers through the neighborhood like he owns it, picks fights to prove himself, and is ultimately all performance — the neighborhood peacock.

A taxi in Uruguay — the reliable way to get around when the bus isn't coming or time is short. In Argentina, 'tacho' sometimes means trash can, but in Uruguay it's unambiguously a cab. You always want a tacho when it's late and you're done waiting.

Pocket change, coins, or an amount of money so small it's basically nothing. In Argentina, 'chauchas' are the coins at the bottom of your bag that don't add up to anything useful. Getting paid 'unas chauchas' for hard work is among the most Argentine insults possible.

In vain, for nothing, without any result. In Argentina, 'al cohete' is the expression for effort that went nowhere — you waited, you worked, you prepared, and in the end it didn't matter. All that energy dissolved into air.