Language

A Favorite Word in Peruvian Spanish: “Chompa”

(la) Chompa (CHOM-pah): If you analyze it, the English word “sweater” is an ugly term for something that’s usually quite nice. The word sounds sweaty, a bad association to have with something warm and fuzzy that you wear next to your skin and typically don’t wash that often. Worse, the word also can refer to a person who sweats a lot (“Yep, my firstborn never did keep his covers on at night. Always was a sweater.”).

Isn’t there a word in another language that expresses the nice-wooly-pullover concept better?

Enter the Latin American “chompa,” which translates as “pullover sweater” but is more fun to say. To my ear, “chompa” has a chomping, chowing-down quality that is distinctly un-sweaterlike — nothing fibrous or fuzzy or sensuous about it; however, the informal “chompa” does suggest a handy thing you can dive into on a damp, grey winter’s day, which is just about every day, May through December, in Lima.

A good word to shout up the staircase: “Dame mi chompa, mi amor.”

Peruvians use “chompa” almost exclusively when referring to a pullover sweater, although there are other terms in Spanish (see Synonyms, below).

Synonyms

Chompa isn’t the only word for “sweater” in Spanish. Depending on what Spanish-speaking country you’re in, you can keep warm with a “suéter,” a “buzo,” or a “jersey,” among other things. Browsing through allwords.com, I found these Spanish-language synonyms for “sweater”:

  • Spanish: chaleco (i, Southern Spain – specifically Seville), buzo (i, Colombia – also suéter), chomba (i, Chile), chompa (i, Bolivia, Peru), jersey (i, Spain standard usage) , pulóver (i, Argentina), suéter (i, Latin America) (trans-bottom) (trans-top, a person who sweats).

Note that, as with the English “sweater,” the Spanish noun “suéter” can refer to “a person who sweats.” (Yuck again.)

Etymology

The origins of “chompa” are detailed on some Web sites. One is run by a Chilean biker/wine buff named Valentín who cites the frequent claim that “chompa” comes from the English term “jumper,” a type of sweater worn by sailors.

I don’t know. “Jumper.” “Chompa.” “Jumper.” “Chompa.”

It’s a big leap but stranger word mutations have happened.

I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.

16 Comments

  • Stuart

    It doesn’t matter what Spanish speaking country you are in, the word for this item of clothing seems to come from English.

    Jumper is the word used in many Commonwealth English-Speaking countries I believe, particularly the UK.

  • Henk

    Yo Barb!

    “Jumper” is not an esoteric type of sweater: but all sweaters. The basic, usual, every-day generic term for sweater in the whole British Isles is “jumper.”

    After I moved to the States from London it took me decades to learn NOT to say “jumper” when I meant “sweater, since Americans used “jumper” for something else. (Some type of children’s outfit, or woman’s dress, I believe? That is pulled on over the head like a sweater?)

    Old joke: what do you get when you cross a sheep with a sweater? A woolly jumper.

    So, I am SURE that “chompa” comes from jumper.”

    My 2 cents,

    Henk

  • Barb

    Henk,
    Much obliged for your two cents. You and Stuart, the two Brits who’ve commented on this post, both assert that “jumper” is what one says in the UK to indicate “sweater.” The word is so foreign to me, but I will try to remember it the next time I am in London. “Time to put on me jumper.”

    Yes, in the States “jumper” is a sleeveless dress/smock thing. Kind of childish/dowdy. I am sure that people in the US did look at you oddly when you said you had to put on your “jumper.”

    So you have finally cured yourself of the habit?

  • Henk Milne

    Eggzackly!

    “It’s a bit parky. Time to put on me jumpah!” As one might say on a p’ticul’rly frigid day in Old Blighty.

    Actually, it wasn’t the “jumper” bit that caused the sidelong looks so much as the blood-red toenail lacquer (five coats).

    But I jest . . .

  • Henk

    I was asleep at the time and was ambushed by toe-lacquer brigands, who took advantage of my state of slumber . . .

  • Ricardo

    Wrong everyone of you!
    The word chompa to refer to a wool jumper comes from the italian. In the renaissance (and earlier) members of the wool guild were known as “ciompi” –the initail c in italian having our ch sound. A chompa is, therefore, a wool fiber knit clothing.

  • Barb

    Ricardo, I never heard that explanation before. It might be possible — “chompa” certainly looks more like “ciompi” than “jumper.”

    Has anyone else ever heard of “chompa” coming from “ciompi”?

    I ask in all seriousness because, surprisingly enough, there are people every day who find there way to this blog after doing a Google search for “chompa.”

    Evidently I am not the only person who is muy preoccupada con chompas….

  • Bob

    I think the link between Chompa and Jumper is actually pretty obvious, and so your favorite word in Peruvian Spanish is just another bit of mutilated english.

    But maybe thats just me.

  • Henk

    Hmmmmm . . . Ricardo.

    On returning to this subject (anything to avoid doing any actual work) I am not convinced by the case for “ciompi.”

    First of all, while “ciompi” is undoubtedly a word, and describes people (plural) who engaged in the trade of wool carding in Italy in the 14th century, “ciompa,” with an “a,” is not even a word (is it?).

    Second, wool carding is a very specific occupation, and while carding is subsequent to shearing, and refers to teasing wool in its raw, unwoven state, it does not cover the subsequent steps, such as spinning into yarn, dyeing and knitting, or anything else on the way to the completed article under discussion. If we were going to name the product after someone associated with its manufacture, wouldn’t we expect the weavers to be first in line? Isn’t it a bit of a jump from “wool carders” to “article of clothing?”

    Third, assuming an Italian word meaning a group of people in the wool carding trade in ancient Italy somehow morphed in meaning to describe a certain woolly article in Peru, why a jumper – and not a hat, or socks, or a jacket, or pants, or . . . all of them?

    Whereas “jumper,” used by the English to denote a sweater, if pronounced with a Spanish accent comes out “chompa,” and – in Peru, at least – denotes exactly the same thing: a sweater.

    Yes? Or we could arm-wrestle?

  • Monica

    Hello,
    I lived in Boliva for a few years, and also had a British sister-in-law. The reason I’m convinced that chompa and jumper are related is the way the British pronounce jumper, like jumpah, which is really very close to chompa.

  • Barb

    So they say “chompa” in Boliva too. Interesting. I guess Evo is the ultimate Bolivian chompa guy. He’s always wearing one.

  • tim

    So, “sweater” isn’t English, it’s an American word for “jumper”. In the UK, we don’t say “sweater” … eeew, sounds horrible as you say.