baja

[jacinta]

I was talking to friends last night about this word. They are from various Central American countries and they told me the word "baja" is not used to describe a short person. I was very surprised since this is the word I learned for "short". They said that if you say baja, you are saying the person is "de la calle" or "desagradable" or you are describing their nivel social.

What are your opinions of this word?

 

[Philippa]

I was talking to someone from Spain about this on Tuesday and I'm pretty sure she said to use bajo/a but not corto about a person!
A worrying thought that an innocent sounding word like bajo can be a sort of insult!

 

[belén]

Hi
I understand your concern, I don't know exactly in what countries you can't say "bajo" but I know that in Mexico you say chaparro for short person.
In Spain you can say it without worries, that I can tell you.
You can soften it to "bajito" if you want to make it more "PC"
Definetely "corto" is not a word to use to describe a person unless you want to insult them. It is usually said about people who are simple, or intelectually challenged.

 

[Tormenta]

Hi
I understand your concern, I don't know exactly in what countries you can't say "bajo" but I know that in Mexico you say chaparro for short person.
In Spain you can say it without worries, that I can tell you.
You can soften it to "bajito" if you want to make it more "PC"
Definetely "corto" is not a word to use to describe a person unless you want to insult them. It is usually said about people who are simple, or intelectually challenged.

And Argentina agrees with Belen! Well, I do

Tormenta

 

[gms]

Everything depends on the context!
In Argentina you could say somebody is "bajo/a" meaning he/she is short.

Juan es (muy) bajo y Andrés es alto= Juan is (really) short and Andrés is tall.

But you could also say
Juan es de una clase social baja, meaning he is poor.

 

[irmab]

all depends on the context you use it and how you use it...

you are right to describe a person is short you can say, "ella es baja de estatura", but also is used in a despective way to describe social levels so when a person is poor, and doesn't have money or education we use to say "es de la clase baja"...

So you can also use if you don't want baja and you want to refer if a person is tall or short "él/ella es chaparrito(a)" or use the complete phrase "ella es baja de estatura"

 

[Tormenta]

I was talking to friends last night about this word. They are from various Central American countries and they told me the word "baja" is not used to describe a short person. I was very surprised since this is the word I learned for "short". They said that if you say baja, you are saying the person is "de la calle" or "desagradable" or you are describing their nivel social.

What are your opinions of this word?

Cuando hablamos de "barrios bajos" or "bajo nivel de vida" , the word "bajo/baja" describe un nivel social. Incluso se dice"gente de clase baja" .

But if you want to say that somebody is short , I believe "baja/o" is the right word .


Tormenta

 

[ines]

En Argentina decimos "es de poca estatura" o "es de baja estatura", o "es petiso(a)", o informalmente, "es corto(a)", "es cortito(a)".

Ahora bien, cuando hablamos de alguien (informalmente) podemos decir, "Pepe(a) es muy corto(a)", refiriéndonos a que tiene muy poco carácter, o es muy retraído, costándole mucho expresarse.