One of the most recognizable words in Cuban popular speech, “asere” –and its variant “acere”– is slated to be included by the end of 2026 in the new edition of the Dictionary of the Spanish Language (DLE), as reported by the Cuban journalist and linguistic promoter Cristian Martínez González.
Martínez, director of the Buen Idioma project, made the revelation during an appearance on the television magazine Buenos Días, in the section dedicated to the use of Spanish, whose clip was shared on Facebook.
"Asere is one of the words expected to be included by the end of 2026 in the 24th edition of the Dictionary of the Spanish Language, that is, the Dictionary of the Academies of the Language," he explained.
The date aligns with the schedule announced by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and the Association of Spanish Language Academies (ASALE), which has the publication of the 24th edition of the Dictionary of the Spanish Language (DLE) planned for 2026.
The academic institutions have reported on the preparations for this new edition, although the specific inclusion of "asere" was anticipated in this case by Martínez.
The specialist also took the opportunity to address an old debate among Cubans: Is it written "asere" or "acere"?
As explained, both spellings are valid, although it is recommended to use the one with "s" because it is the most commonly used.
That criterion had already been presented by Buen Idioma in a recommendation published in 2023, in which it was noted that both asere and acere are valid spellings, although the former is more commonly used, according to the Corpus of the Spanish Language of the 21st Century.
The Dictionary of Americanisms by ASALE includes acere with the meaning of "close friend, inseparable companion" and also records asere as a Cuban variant.
Martínez insisted that it is a cubanism primarily characteristic of colloquial register, so its acceptance does not imply that it is appropriate in all communicative situations.
He also rejected the idea that it should automatically be considered a vulgar expression or solely associated with certain social groups.
The Dictionary of Americanisms itself classifies it as a popular term that can also spontaneously appear among educated speakers.
"It is a word that has spread in the Spanish of Cuba, and there is no reason to censor it," Martínez stated, recalling that for years the term was stigmatized and still generates debate among some speakers.
The expression also gained particular international notoriety in 2023, when “Team Asere” became the nickname by which the Cuban national team was identified during the World Baseball Classic, bringing one of the most colloquial terms from the island to an international sporting stage.
Buen Idioma was founded in 2020 and is dedicated to promoting the proper use of Spanish in Cuban media, as well as answering linguistic inquiries and disseminating spelling and grammatical recommendations.
Martínez González, a graduate in Journalism from the University of Havana, is also a university professor and an editor-proofreader.
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