What does “bacán” mean in Spanish?

Bacán is the all-purpose “cool/awesome” of Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Cuba and beyond — a synonym for chévere or genial. “Qué bacán mi álbum” means “My album is so cool.” It works as a one-word reaction or a modifier, and in some places also tags someone living large and carefree. Pleasingly, it travelled the long way round to get there.

The word traces back through Buenos Aires lunfardo to Genoese-Italian immigrants' baccán — the household “boss,” from bacco (a stick of authority). Tango lyrics carried it up the continent, where the meaning drifted from “the big man” to simply “great.” Watch the register: it’s casual youth slang, perfect among friends, out of place in formal writing.