vaina

What it means

1. 1.

   Thing — any object, situation, event or problem whose name is unavailable or not worth saying. The single most frequent noun in casual Dominican speech.

2. 2.

   A nuisance or a mess: 'se formó una vaina' means something went badly wrong.

3. 3.

   As an exclamation, '¡qué vaina!' covers everything from mild annoyance to genuine bad news.

   Mildly coarse rather than vulgar. Acceptable among colleagues, still avoided in a formal meeting or in front of a grandmother.

Literally: sheath, pod

Examples with translations

• Pásame esa vaina de ahí.

  Pass me that thing over there.

• ¡Qué vaina, se fue la luz otra vez!

  Oh for goodness' sake, the power's gone again!

• Yo no me meto en esa vaina.

  I want nothing to do with that mess.

  Note: Said of a dispute, not an object.

Where it comes from

Standard Spanish vaina is a scabbard or a seed pod. The generic 'thing' sense developed across the Caribbean and northern South America; it is strongest in Dominican, Venezuelan and Colombian speech. Dominican usage is noticeably milder than Colombian, where the word retains more of an edge.