rastaquouère

English

Alternative forms

• rastacouère

Etymology

Borrowed from French rastaquouère, from South American Spanish rastacuero.

Noun

rastaquouère (plural rastaquouères)

1. A social upstart, especially from a Mediterranean or Latin American country; a smooth untrustworthy foreigner.
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 607:

     That is, willing to drop the surveillance and shelve the files of all his other current assignments, to concentrate on this band of rastaquouères who had blown so problematically into town.