Jarana Spanish

bamba

Short answer

In Lima, "bamba" means fake, counterfeit. The register is coloquial — fine among friends, out of place in a job interview or anything written to an institution. The standard Spanish equivalent is "falso, de imitación". In use: Esas zapatillas son bamba.

Part of speechadjetivo / sustantivo
Registercoloquial
Standard Spanishfalso, de imitación
In useEsas zapatillas son bamba.
Those trainers are fake.

Draft entry — needs a native-speaker check before publishing.

Used as both noun and adjective. Not necessarily an insult about the object — often just a factual description of where it was bought.