Chilean slang for anything that fails to deliver excitement — applied freely to tedious gatherings, uninspiring people, or disappointing experiences.
Fome is what Chileans reach for when something fails to deliver — the party that never takes off, the person who drains the energy from a room, the movie that makes you check your phone. It's the conversational shorthand for anything that lacks spark, whether that's a tedious lecture or an uninspiring date. Chileans apply it freely: "esa fiesta estuvo fome" (that gathering was a letdown), "qué fome ese tipo" (that person is painfully dull).
The word emerged somewhere in the late 20th century, though its exact origin remains contested. One theory traces it to Mapudungun, the indigenous Chilean language, where it meant "soft" or "bland." Another points to French "famine" — lacking substance. Regardless of its roots, fome embedded itself so deeply into Chilean speech that most natives don't realize other Spanish speakers have no idea what they're saying.
This is what makes fome fascinating: it's a citizenship test disguised as an adjective. Use it naturally and you signal you belong. The fact that Chileans deploy it unconsciously — then express genuine surprise when outsiders don't understand — reveals how linguistic identity works. Some words don't just describe a culture's experience; they become the experience itself, invisible to those inside, opaque to everyone else.