New word: Chomo

 

     I was in DC recently, walking back from the Washington Monument to my son and daughter-in-law's place, when I noticed this enigmatic poster with an unfamiliar word. 
     "Chomo" sounded vaguely Spanish, like cholo, a young street gang member. No need to guess; as a fan of learning new words, I plugged it into Google even as I strolled away.
     "The term 'chomo' is a derogatory slur that means 'child molester'" Google AI began. "It originated in prison and is now sometimes used in broader contexts. It is considered highly offensive and is used to label and ostracize individuals convicted of sex offenses against children."
     A reminder that, as inclusive as many like to be, sometimes ostracization is a good and necessary thing. 

     I considered whether a photo of the poster should be shared — I would hate for this slur to be  directed unfairly at any particular individual. But it is an interesting, relatively new word, so I digitally obscured the face of the person depicted so he cannot be identified. 

     AI can't always be trusted either, so I dug into the etymology.

    "As soon as a Chomo checks into the Fish Tank, every convict knows about it," Jimmy A. Lerner writes in his 2003 "You Got Nothing Coming: Notes from a Prison Fish," the oldest citation I could find. 

    "Chomos may be people who trafficked in children or abused children during pornography," Carmen M. Cusak writes in her 2017, "Pornography and the Criminal Justice System."

     "I simply passed it along, thinking someone in the chomo's (child molester) unit would want to know," writes  Chad Holloman in his 2022 prison memoir "Cries for Carteret: My Shot at Redemption," finding himself deemed "responsible for taking the chop out since it was me that dug up the dirt on him."

     The word is defined in William K. Bentley and James M. Corbett's 1992 "Prison Slang: A Dictionary of Words and Expressions Depicting Life Behind Bars."

     It could be argued that the word really isn't of much practical use for most people outside the prison system, thank goodness. Though that's the funny thing with new words — you don't need them until you do. I tucked it away for future reference.