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Most of the Spanish I learn is of the Mexican slang variety but I'm not sure I quite understand this one.
Can anyone explain the meaning/origin or contextual usage of "Cueros de rana?" I am told that it is slang for "money." I'm guessing it's like bucks. Green skin as in "frog skin." "Plata."
Any ideas? Thanks.
According to Tumbaburro de la Picardia Mexicana (Jimenez, A. Editorial Diana, 1977), a book that compiles hundreds of Mexican slang expressions, "cueros de rana" would be...
"...a 100 pesos banknote that had a brownish colour and went out of print in 1975".
Incidentally, and according to Bank of Mexico, from 1925 and 1978 Mexican banknotes were printed by the American Bank Note Company from New York, USA, before giving way to the Banknote Factory of Bank Of Mexico. Perhaps that would explain why some Mexicans nowadays say "cueros de rana" when talking about 'US dollars'? ;)
In any case, I never heard of that expression. I know money can be referred as "varo", "varos", "morlaca", "borrega", "lana", "feria", "billete", "pachocha", "billullos", "morlacos"... I guess it depends the region we are talking about (Mexico is a big country).
I was born and raised in the state of Sonora, and as you may know narco culture is more deep-seated in northern states specially across the border or the so-called Triángulo Dorado.
Going back to the meaning of the expression: It indeed has evolved into a narco slang, it literally means "frog skin" which is a metaphor for green money, since US dollars have historically been green toned and also been the main currency between the narco and the cartels it definitely has an illegal connotation.
As another user has mentioned, it may be subject to joke around but I would avoid its usage when referring to "clean" money. Other actual slang terms I would recommend would be either: "feria", "lana" or "varo", any other like "morlaco", "billullo" or "pachocha" are long forgotten and in no more use since at least the Golden Era of Mexican cinema (1930-1960).
Interestingly enough, it is worth noting that this kind of expressions, believe it or not, appear in the Diccionario de americanismos in the ASALE web:
ǁ ~ de rana. loc. sust. Mx. Dólar. delinc.
So it is an expression used in the delinquency world ("delinc."), in México ("Mx."), and means "dollar". I am not from México so I do not know if it has some other, slightly different connotation, but checking that dictionary you can get the idea of what the expression means.
Cueros de rana or cueritos de rana, is used to refer to dollars.
Other answers say it is not used any more but it's been used recently in this lyrics by 'Los Tigres del Norte':
Los Tigres Del Norte - El Hijo De Tijuana
"Yo soy puro cachanilla, nacido y criado en Tijuana
No soy borrego señores, y cargo kilos de lana
Por eso me ven gastando, puros cueritos de rana"
That is:
I am pure cachanilla(people fro Mexicali), born and raised in Tijuana
I am not lamb, and carry kilograms of wool(money)
So you see me spending, pure frog skins
This is a very old expression, and probably nobody uses it nowadays. My understanding is that it means U.S. dollars.
I came across this expression reading "La familia burrón", an old Mexican comic.
It definitely sounds mexican, I did a quick search and that's the definition, money. Apparently it's narco slang, and means dollars. It's not very spread in the entire population, so the use is very reduced. I think it's something you should avoid, it's not wrong but since is related to the narco culture, is better is you only know the word and maybe joke with your friends but just that. Maybe I am exaggerating but it's better not to use this kind of words, my opinion of course, there's people who joke around a lot with this stuff but they don't look quite good.
A dictionary says that it comes from the old brown paper money of the 70's but apparently the meaning changed with time.
Again maybe I am being too exaggerated so, you can decide using it or not.
