From 'queer' to 'BIPOC': the English words Spain uses without translating

Anglicisms: Spanish surrenders to English with no instruction manual

Ask someone to explain what «queer», «BIPOC» or «snipped» means and watch their face. Half of Spain, the half that uses those words, couldn't define them without reaching for another English word. English has stopped being a foreign language and become the slang of a country that never quite learns what it means.

In recent weeks, the debate over the overuse of anglicisms has resurfaced with force around academic, identity-related and internet-culture terms. The Spanish language isn't dying: it is being buried alive under a layer of words we import with no instruction manual.

The academic confusion: PhD, master's and internship

The 21st century has turned the CV into a lexical minefield. A PhD is a doctorate, not an extended master's; an internship is a work placement, not a job. It sounds simple, but the line blurs when Spanish companies ask for candidates with a «PhD or equivalent» and applicants respond with a master's degree. The confusion is not innocent: in the job market, mixing up credentials costs you interviews.

From «queer» to «BIPOC»: liquid identity in English

Identity terms are the ones that provoke the most backlash. «Queer», which in English means «strange», has become an umbrella for anyone who doesn't fit into normative heterosenshetero. Meanwhile, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Tonalidad) is a catch-all drawer for anyone who isn't a white Anglo-Saxon. They arrive here late and with more noise than substance, but they do their job: labelling what many would rather not label.

The slang that's already ours: «based», «POV» and «core»

On the internet, things get wilder. «Based» means holding an opinion without antiestéticar of what people will say; «POV» (point of view) is misused everywhere you look; «core» is a wildcard that fits any aesthetic trend (normcore, cottagecore, goblincore). These are words born and buried on TikTok, but they have already colonised public conversation. Some aren't even new: «procrastination» has been in psychology textbooks for decades, though we keep using it as a synonym for laziness when it really describes poor emotional management.

And meanwhile, Spanish keeps fighting back. Someone, in a display of originality, tried to name their son «Paroxismo» and had to fight the Spanish Civil Registry Law, which bans names objectively contrary to a child's dignity. The Registry won. The list of words we import without understanding, on the other hand, keeps growing. Perhaps the healthiest thing would be to enrol in a master's in technical English before continuing to fill our mouths with terms even we can't explain.