What does “papus” mean in Argentine Spanish?

Papus is how Argentines — especially online — call out to a group of friends or followers. It comes from papá, softened and pluralised into something that sounds more like “buds” or “guys” than “dads.” Born in Argentine internet culture around the early 2010s, it spread fast as a low-effort, high-warmth vocative: a way to pull people in without being formal or loud about it.

In the clip, the artist drops papus mid-drawing tutorial — “El resultado va a ser épico, papus” (“the result is going to be epic, guys”) — exactly the casual, between-friends register the word carries. The singular papu works the same way one-on-one. You’ll find it all over Argentine social media as a headline opener: pasa, papu (“check this out, buddy”). Outside Argentina it reads as clearly Argentine, which gives it a gentle regional flavour even when speakers know what it means.