400 bubble-era neologisms: the dictionary that captures Spain

400 neologisms to name the Spain that never makes it into the official gazette

There are words missing from the official dictionary because they describe what the official dictionary prefers not to look at. A collaborative project has gathered 400 neologisms in a downloadable PDF, arranged alphabetically, which works as an X-ray of the vocabulary the street has been forging through irony. The previous edition was already circulating; this one arrives expanded and with the same aim: to name what everyone recognizes and no one had labeled.

The criterion is not philological, it is descriptive. Each entry captures a figure, a practice or an everyday contradiction. The result is a glossary that reads like a treatise on household economics disguised as a joke.

What the bubble dictionary is and where it comes from

The project was born from a community that has spent years inventing terms for things that have no name. The new edition, announced as «Hic Svnt Leones: SERÁ EN OCTVBRE», arrives with 400 entries and is distributed as a PDF. Contributions and donations via Bizum (a Spanish instant mobile payment app) are accepted, which gives an idea of the funding model: voluntary, scattered and without subsidies.

The format is deliberately artisanal. There is no publisher behind it and no scholarly apparatus. There is an alphabetical list running from A to Z that includes everything from economic concepts to social types. The entry for ADOBADO defines a type of housing that «combines all the defects of the apartment block and the detached house», the recurring dream of anyone who aspires to a villa without giving up the vices of property speculation.

Bricks, oars and decrees: the economic vocabulary

The hard core of the dictionary is economic. LADRILLO (brick, slang for property) is defined as «the middle class's investment mechanism, governed by the commandments of never-working-ism», which turns fired clay into imaginary wealth and real debt. The entry concludes: «it never loses value, only buyers». LADRILLOTEÍSMO is described as the faith that fired clay protects against any crisis, especially the ones caused by buying fired clay.

The REMERO (oarsman) is the taxpayer who keeps the galley moving while up on deck they argue about how to distribute his effort. The definition adds that every year his oar gets longer and he gets twice the lashes while being congratulated on the recovery. RECORTIFLACCIÓN describes the phenomenon by which the packaging keeps its size, the price keeps its ambition and the contents learn to live with less.

DECRETOSPERIDAD is the abundance proclaimed in the BOE (Spain's official state gazette) whose entry into force is delayed because no one is available to produce it. And DEJAR EL REMO (dropping the oar) means leaving salaried work to live off rental income, the highest aspiration of the person who denounces rentiers while calculating how many flats he needs to become one.

Politics, agendas and the vocabulary of suspicion

The dictionary also has political entries. AGENDA 2030 is defined, according to one of the entries collected, as a plan to impose a global model, a formulation that reproduces the usual climate of suspicion in these circles. LADY TUCÁN is described as a vice president who decrees labor prosperity and leaves it to employers to find the money to pay for it. The DEMIGRANTE is someone who produces extreme secondhand embarrassment.

There is a cruder vein too. DABUTI is presented as the primordial spirit of pure idiocy that gnaws and drools at the center of the universe while strutting on an e-scooter. It is the most baroque entry and also the most political.

The new edition's additions

The expansion brings in new terms. PAGAFANTISMO ESTRUCTURAL describes, according to one contribution to the thread, the guy who pays for the group dinners while everyone else gets paid to attend. LONCHAFINISMO 2.0 is no longer about eating bologna; it means staring at the supermarket receipt and calculating how much dignity is left per euro. The ARMCHAIR OARSMAN is the one who urges everyone to pull together from his well-paid remote job.

There are also entries inherited from earlier discussions, such as the JITANOTORERO, which claims to be one of the «prettiest and most accurate» words in the glossary. And an entire family of terms about the doormat and its derivatives, contributed by a collaborator who proclaims himself «Caudillo Púbico».

The funding model and Bizum culture

The project is sustained by donations via Bizum. It is a model that has proliferated: anyone with a digital bowl can fund what once required a publisher. The dictionary embraces this without embarrassment and turns it into part of the joke. The new edition is announced with the promise that it «will be in October», with no further detail.

The discussion drifted toward other matters. One participant recounted the case of a priest from a village in La Sagra who, according to his account, engaged in improper conduct with animals and with neighbors, and who allegedly reported the person who uncovered him, with that person ending up convicted of defaming the clergyman. The story, without independent verification, was used to illustrate a thesis: that pointing fingers has a cost, and the one being pointed at gets paid.

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With 400 entries and a downloadable PDF, the dictionary works as a thermometer of the vocabulary the real economy has been generating. It remains to be seen whether the October edition keeps up the pace or whether the vein runs dry. For now, the Bizum line stays open.