rebusque

What it means

1. 1.

   Informal income-hustling: selling sweets on the bus, doing deliveries, reselling, whatever pays today. Not a euphemism for crime, and Colombians are precise about that distinction.

2. 2.

   As a verb, rebuscarse: to make ends meet by improvising. 'Uno se rebusca' is said with a shrug that is half complaint and half pride.

Examples with translations

• Los domingos hace un rebusque vendiendo tintos.

  On Sundays he does a bit on the side selling coffee.

• Aquí toca rebuscársela.

  Round here you have to make your own way.

  Note: A national idiom about the informal economy, said with resignation rather than shame.

Where it comes from

From rebuscar, 'to search again, to glean' — originally gathering what was left in a field after harvest. The word predates its current economic sense, which grew with Colombia's large informal sector in the second half of the twentieth century.

Other forms

Spellings and variants:

rebuscarse, rebuscador

Similar terms:

recursividad, chanfa