chica
chica Lexical Profile
chica Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A girl or young woman, especially one of Spanish or Latin American heritage, or used informally as a friendly term of address among women.
"Hey chica, are you still coming to the concert with us tonight?"
An orange-red dyestuff and pigment extracted by boiling the leaves of the South American climbing plant Fridericia chica (formerly Arrabidaea chica), traditionally used by indigenous peoples to paint the skin.
"Anthropologists documented how the local artisans prepared cakes of chica to dye cotton fibers a vibrant crimson."
A tropical woody climbing vine (Fridericia chica, family Bignoniaceae) native to Central and South America, having compound leaves that yield a red pigment and traditional medicinal extracts.
Word Nuance & Usage
When used in English as an informal term of address for a girl or woman, "chica" is distinct from "chicha" (a traditional South American fermented beverage) and from the historical pigment Sense of "chica" derived from indigenous South American languages.
• Rhymes for chica
Word Origin & Etymology
For the informal term meaning "girl," borrowed from Spanish chica, the feminine form of chico ("small" or "boy"), from Latin ciccum ("a trifle"). For the pigment and plant sense, borrowed via Spanish from an indigenous South American language of the Orinoco basin.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.