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Periódico Cubano: Spain's language academy adds "asere" and "cocotaxi" to the 24th edition of its dictionary
The Spanish language dictionary presented in Madrid on October 30, 2026 includes "asere" and "cocotaxi" among 1,570 Latin American words, and the Cuban Academy of Language chose "asere" as its representative term.
Cuban everyday speech gains ground in the Diccionario de la lengua española (DLE) with the addition of "asere" and "cocotaxi" in the 24th edition, presented on Friday, October 30, 2026, in Madrid by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (ASALE), according to Periódico Cubano. The launch was led by Santiago Muñoz Machado, with Paz Battaner, the edition's director, taking part; each national academy picked a word typical of its country, and the Cuban delegation, led by Jorge Fornet Gil, chose "asere".
The dictionary recognizes two senses for "asere": a person with whom one has a close friendship, and a way of addressing someone familiarly. It also admits the variant "acere", though it recommends the spelling with "s" because it prevails among speakers, and classes both spellings as colloquial, not advisable in formal communication. "Cocotaxi" is recorded as a word specific to Cuba: the rounded motorized tricycle used to carry passengers.
According to the same outlet, the dictionary also took in other Cuban terms: "chupachupa", "yuma", "temba", "motivito", "cheo", "péter", "pru", "saoco", "jamaliche", "catao", "agromercado", "aché", "oricha" and "güije". The new edition adds 1,570 words specific to Spanish-speaking countries and 1,490 demonyms.
The work comes twelve years after the previous one and is the first conceived originally in digital form: it gathers 99,990 entries and some 209,000 senses, and the printed version, published by Espasa in two volumes, runs to 3,606 pages. General additions include "influencer", "pódcast", "metaverso", "basuraleza" and "turistificación".
The recognition had precedents: in 2021 an RAE post about "acere" drew objections from Cuban users who defended the spelling with "s", and the term spread beyond the island thanks to the nickname "Team Asere" used by the national squad at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Language writer Cristian Martínez González had flagged its inclusion in September: "It is a word that has spread through Cuban Spanish and there is no reason to censor it," he argued then, in remarks translated by Yamacoa.
Sources: Periódico Cubano
Data updated: 2026-11-01T16:15:00.000Z