concho

What it means

1. 1.

   A shared route taxi: an old saloon car that runs a fixed line and takes six or seven passengers, four of them across the back seat. The backbone of urban transport in Santo Domingo and Santiago.

2. 2.

   The driver of one, also called a conchero. 'Coger un concho' is to take one; you flag it and say the destination through the window.

Examples with translations

• Cógete un concho por la Duarte.

  Take a route taxi along Duarte.

• El conchero no tenía vuelto.

  The taxi driver had no change.

Where it comes from

Origin uncertain. The most repeated account traces it to a nickname or trade name of the cars used on the first shared routes in the 1920s, but the documentary trail is thin and the word should be treated as unexplained. The thing itself is specific enough to the country that visitors usually meet the word before they meet a satisfying etymology.

First attested: early 20th century

Other forms

Spellings and variants:

conchero