flipar

Flipar is what happens when your mind gets knocked sideways—originally by drugs, now by anything that breaks your expectations. It's the verbal equivalent of your brain short-circuiting from surprise, amazement, or just really, really liking something. You use it when normal words for "I'm impressed" or "I love this" feel too mild for what you're experiencing.

The word arrived in Spain during the 1960s-70s, borrowed from English "to flip out" by young people absorbing counterculture from abroad. It started in underground circles talking about hallucinogenic experiences, then escaped into everyday speech. The mental disorientation of tripping became a metaphor for being stunned by anything—a concert, a sunset, someone's audacity. Eventually it softened further: "me flipa" just means you're really into something.

What's revealing is how Spain took an English phrase about losing control and made it their own expression of enthusiasm. It stayed almost exclusively Spanish—Latin Americans don't naturally use it—showing how Spain's youth culture evolved separately during the same decades. The word's journey from taboo drug slang to mainstream exclamation of delight mirrors Spain's own transformation after Franco: loosening up, opening outward, letting the intense stuff into casual conversation.