ay bendito

¡Ay, bendito! is a Puerto Rican expression of sympathy or surprise, somewhere between “aww, poor thing” and “oh my God.”

What ay bendito means

Wikipedia’s list of Puerto Rican slang gives it as “aww, poor you” or “oh my God,” with shorter versions “¡bendito!” and just “dito.” Ay is a sigh or lament, and bendito means “blessed.” You say it when someone tells you sad news, when something is heartbreakingly cute, or when life is just a bit much.

It’s so familiar on the island that the comedian Elín Ortiz worked it into the title of one of his political satire shows.

Examples

• “Se le murió el perrito.” “¡Ay, bendito!” (Her little dog died. Aww, poor thing.)
• “Bendito, you look exhausted.”
• “Ay bendito, it’s raining again.”

Where it came from

Bendito is the Spanish word for blessed, from Latin benedictus. The phrase works like an English speaker sighing “bless.”

Related terms

• Ay caramba: wow, good grief.
• Oof: a wince.
• Yikes: that’s bad.
• Qué onda: what’s up?

More words from other languages are in our world slang guide.