fula

What it means

1. 1.

   The US dollar, and by extension hard currency in general. Cien fula is a hundred dollars.

2. 2.

   As an adjective, bad, dodgy, unpleasant — of a situation, a person or a piece of news. Estar fula is to be in a bad way; ponerse fula is for things to turn nasty.

Examples with translations

• Eso hay que pagarlo en fula, en moneda nacional no lo venden.

  You have to pay for that in dollars, they don't sell it in pesos.

• La cosa está fula este mes.

  Things are rough this month.

  Note: The adjective is the older sense and is still in constant use.

Where it comes from

The adjectival sense — bad, worthless — is the original and is generally traced to an African substrate in Cuban Spanish. The currency sense grew out of it during the years when holding dollars was a criminal offence: money you could go to prison for was fula money. It survived the 1993 decriminalisation and outlived the convertible peso that replaced it.

First attested: adjective early 20th century; 'dollar' from the 1980s

Other forms

Similar terms:

baro, chavito