Dictionary

hombre en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• /ˈʌmbɹeɪ/ (General-American)
• /ˈɑmbɹeɪ/ (General-American)
• /-bɹi/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈɒmbɹeɪ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (US) audio
• /-bɹi/ (General-American)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰeǵʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-ōm Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰōm Proto-Indo-European *-ō Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ Proto-Italic *hemō Latin hemō Latin homō Latin hominem Old Spanish omne Spanish hombrebor. English hombre Borrowed from Spanish hombre (“man; human being”). Doublet of gome, homo, ombre, and omi.

Meanings

1. (US, in Spanish-speaking contexts, slang) A man, a chap, a guy; especially a Hispanic or Spanish man.
   • There was a pause I didn't like, punctuated by shrieks of shrill laughter from the hombres at the bar. Only Mexicans can laugh like that. 2016, Lawrence Winkler, “Bajada”, in Orion’s Cartwheel (Cartwheels Quadrilogy; 1), Victoria, B.C.: First Choice Books, →ISBN, page 22:
   • The foreman. As tough an hombre who ever lived. If Mr. Bell had sent Jackson instead of me, he'd take your rifle and beat you half to death with it. 2010, Jon Sharpe [pseudonym], chapter 1, in Rocky Mountain Revenge (The Trailsman; no. 342), New York, N.Y.: Signet Books, New American Library, →ISBN:
   • [W]e're glad to learn that the Yankee bullet has not quite stopped your breath. You're all right, hombre! c. 1850, [Thomas] Mayne Reid, “A Group of Jarochos”, in The Guerilla^([sic]) Chief, and Other Tales, London: C. H. Clarke, 13, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 62:
   • That hombre now with the worn out hat, tattered shirt, and fragmentary breeches, wears a sword. Bless you, his dignity would suffer greatly without it! 1852 March 8, E. P., “Golden Correspondence.—No. 1”, in J[oseph] M. Church, editor, Church’s Bizarre. For Fireside and Wayside, volume I, number 1 (New Series), Philadelphia, Pa.: Church & Co., 140 Chestnut Street, published 17 April 1852, →OCLC, page 9, column 2:
   • Coming towards us was the biggest, meanest looking hombre I'd ever seen. 1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 92:
   • Spanish has become a sanctioned indicator of potential criminality in the United States of America. The language of Miguel de Cervantes and Andrés Cantor, the world’s fourth most spoken tongue, has been deemed the sound of bad hombres in our midst. 2025 October 20, Carlos Lozada, “You Caught Me. I’m Speaking Spanish.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Forms