pandejo

Likely borrowed from Spanish pandejo (see below), or formed in English from pandemic and Spanish pendejo (“contemptible person”). Attested from 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• IPA^(key): /pænˈdeɪhoʊ/

pandejo (plural pandejos)

1. (derogatory, neologism) One who is foolishly reckless around COVID-19.

   Synonym: covidiot

   • 2020 December 3, Gustavo Arellano, “Don’t be a ‘pandejo.’ Take the pandemic seriously”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 February 2021:

     It’ll happen until we, like these three people bravely did during their reckonings with the dreaded disease, begin to truly call out pandejo behavior. […] He does think we need to call out pandejos, but in a way that makes them “realize that we [Latinos] can take care of each other and pull through together anything, because we’ve done it before.”

   • 2021 August 4, Gustavo Arellano, “At my wife's Santa Ana market, the masks have never come off”, in The Los Angeles Times‎^[2], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 September 2021:

     This is infamously "pandejo" central — the home of pandemic pendejos, or blockheads.

   • 2022 January 4, Gustavo Arellano, “We all need a pandemic-era hero in 2022”, in San Diego Union-Tribune‎^[3], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 January 2026:

     As I shared then, he once was the king of pandejos — the Mexican Spanish term for covidiots.

Blend of pandemia (“pandemic”) +‎ pendejo (“stupid person; contemptible person”). Attested from 2020.

• IPA^(key): /panˈdexo/ [pãn̪ˈd̪e.xo]
• Rhymes: -exo
• Syllabification: pan‧de‧jo

pandejo m (plural pandejos, feminine pandeja, feminine plural pandejas)

1. (derogatory) one who is foolishly reckless around COVID-19

   Synonym: covidiota

• 2020 December 4, Gustavo Arellano, “No sea ‘pandejo’, tómese en serio la pandemia”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[4]:

  ¿Nunca oyó hablar del término? Se acuñó recientemente; una palabra compuesta de “pandemia” y “pendejo”, el término que usan los mexicanos para referirse a un tonto. Pandejo es un vocablo poco amable — pero tristemente preciso — para describir a los “covidiotas” latinos que se burlan con orgullo de los protocolos para combatir el coronavirus.

  Never heard the word? It’s newly minted; a word composed of “pandemic” and “pendejo”, a term Mexicans use to refer to fools. Pandejo is not a very nice word – but sadly accurate – to describe Latino “covidiots” who proudly mock the protocols meant to combat the coronavirus.