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zafacón

sah-fah-KOHNnounColloquial

A Dominican Spanish slang term. Browse all Dominican slang.

What it means

  1. A rubbish bin. The ordinary word — basurero and papelera both sound imported.

  2. Figuratively, where a plan ends up: 'eso se fue al zafacón'.

Examples with translations

  • Bota eso en el zafacón.

    Throw that in the bin.

  • To' el proyecto se fue al zafacón.

    The whole project went in the bin.

Where it comes from

The popular story derives it from English 'safety can', supposedly from the US occupation years. It is repeated constantly and has never been demonstrated; an alternative proposal traces it to Arabic safaqa via the Spanish azafate, a tray or basket. Neither is settled, and the safety-can version is best treated as folk etymology. Shared with Puerto Rican Spanish.