An informal address among friends in Mexican Spanish that signals familiarity and comfort, ranging from affectionate to frustrated depending on tone.
Güey is what Mexicans say when they need an informal way to address someone they're comfortable with — the friend you'd grab a beer with, the cousin you grew up alongside, the coworker you joke around with during breaks. It carries warmth and familiarity, though tone matters: said playfully it's affectionate, said sharply it stings. You wouldn't use it with your boss, a stranger, or your grandmother.
The word started as an insult in the 1840s, derived from "buey" (ox), carrying implications of foolishness. But by the 1960s and 70s, during Mexico's youth counterculture movement, something shifted. Young people reclaimed it, transforming an insult into a badge of solidarity. What was meant to demean became a way to signal belonging.
This reclamation reveals something fundamental about Mexican Spanish: its capacity for linguistic rebellion. The same culture that values respect and formality also creates space for words that started as violations of those norms. Güey's journey from taboo to ubiquity shows how communities can strip power from insults by claiming them as their own. Today it's so embedded in Mexican speech that it functions less like a word with fixed meaning and more like verbal punctuation — marking rhythm, emphasis, connection.