What does “chusmear” mean in Rioplatense Spanish?

Chusmear means to snoop, pry, or gossip — flipping through something, eavesdropping, or digging into other people’s business just because you’re curious. It comes from chusma, an old word for the rabble or riffraff, with the ending -ear turning it into a verb. In Argentina and Uruguay it’s used constantly and casually, often half-jokingly, the way you’d admit to being nosy rather than confess to real gossip.

In the clip, the speaker stacks three near-synonyms — leyendo (reading), chusmeando, and chequeando (checking) — to joke about just how nosy she’s being over an old book from her grandmother’s collection. The noun chusma itself can be a classist insult for “riffraff,” so chusmear keeps a playful edge of “being a bit much.” The related noun chusmerío means gossip or an unverified rumor.