Meanings
plural desaparecidos
- One of the people who disappeared during the 1976-1983 military rule in Argentina, presumed to have been killed by members of the regime.
The French missionaries aided the mothers of Argentina's desaparecidos by accompanying them to police stations and military barracks looking for news of their children, before being kidnapped themselves by Astiz.
2011 October 27, Uki Goni, The Guardian1 more example
And Timerman's memoir, Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number, was the book above all that clothed in living, hurting flesh the necessarily abstract idea of the desaparecido: the disappeared one or, to invest it with the more sinister and grisly past participle with which it came into the world, the one who has been “disappeared.”
2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2011, page 193 - One of the people who disappeared during the 1972-1981 martial law in the Philippines, presumed to be killed by the military.
Origin
- Spanishdesaparecido
- Englishdesaparecido
Unadapted borrowing from Spanish desaparecido.
More words from Spanish
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
desaparecido. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/desaparecido
“desaparecido.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/desaparecido. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “desaparecido,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/desaparecido.
Source: desaparecido on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.