A Filipino discourse marker that retracts what you just said—verbal punctuation meaning 'just kidding' that softens bold statements while keeping them in play.
Charot is verbal punctuation that takes back what you just said. You drop something bold, flirtatious, or potentially offensive into conversation, then append 'charot' to signal you're not entirely serious. It functions as a social airbag—softening the impact while keeping the statement in play. You'll hear it across every register of Filipino conversation: 'I'm the best programmer in the Philippines, charot.' 'You're cute, charot.' 'I love Mondays, charot.'
The word emerged from swardspeak, the linguistic system Filipino LGBTQ+ communities developed during the 1980s-90s as both identity marker and protective code in a predominantly Catholic society. Through a chain of transformations—'etching' became 'echos,' then 'chos,' merging with 'char' to create 'charot'—the term carried decades of queer creativity before crossing into mainstream Filipino vocabulary during the 2010s via social media and entertainment.
What makes charot culturally revealing isn't just its journey from margin to center—it's how it embodies Filipino conversational style itself. The emphasis on indirect communication, humor as social lubricant, the cultural premium on getting along without confrontation. Charot lets you say the thing while not quite saying it. Many young Filipinos now use it reflexively, unaware of its LGBTQ+ origins—a phenomenon that represents both integration and potential erasure of queer linguistic heritage.