--- title: "echarse un coyotito" translation: "To take a quick nap." type: "word" category: "expression" url: "https://consalsa.app/words/echarse-un-coyotito" canonical: "https://consalsa.app/words/echarse-un-coyotito" published: "2026-10-14" updated: "2026-10-14" author: "Andrey the Nomad" site: "ConSalsa.App" license: "https://consalsa.app/terms#ip" --- # echarse un coyotito URL: https://consalsa.app/words/echarse-un-coyotito Translation: To take a quick nap. Pronunciation: /eˈtʃaɾ.se un ko.ʝoˈti.to/ Category: expression Region: Mexico Register: casual, affectionate, completely safe Variants: un coyotito, echarse una pestañita, planchar oreja, echarse un jeto, quedarse jetón Literal meaning: A little coyote. Coyote is from Náhuatl coyotl, and the usual account is that coyotes are nocturnal and doze through the day in short stretches. Published: 2026-10-14 Quick answer: - Echarse un coyotito means to take a quick nap - short, opportunistic, and usually not in a bed. - Coyotito is a little coyote, from Náhuatl coyotl - and coyotes are nocturnal, dozing through the day in short stretches. - Planchar oreja and echarse una pestañita mean the same thing; una siesta is the full-size version. What it means: - A short nap you did not plan for. Twenty minutes after lunch, ten in a parked car, an accidental one at a desk - the word carries the shortness and the improvisation together. - It is affectionate rather than lazy. Somebody announcing they are going to echarse un coyotito is not confessing to anything, and in a lot of Mexican households a Sunday afternoon is understood to contain several. Literal meaning: - Un coyotito is a little coyote, and coyote itself comes from Náhuatl coyotl - that much is documented. The usual account of the nap sense is that coyotes are nocturnal and doze through daylight in short stretches, which fits both the animal and the nap well enough to be the standard explanation rather than a story invented to fill a gap. - What is not recorded is when or where the phrase was first said - which is true of nearly every fixed expression in the language, and is a much smaller gap than nobody knows. - The diminutive is doing real work regardless of the animal. Coyote would not mean this; coyotito does, and the -ito is what makes it small, quick and forgivable. - Echarse is the same verb behind echarse un taco and echarse una chela - to have one of something, casually, without ceremony. That construction is worth more to a learner than the coyote is. How Mexicans use it: - After food, above all. La comida is the main meal and it lands in the middle of the afternoon, which is exactly why the word exists and why Sunday is its natural habitat. - At work it is said half as a joke and half as a plan. Voy a echarme un coyotito is a real sentence in a Mexican office, usually about twenty minutes in a car or a quiet room, and nobody treats it as scandalous. - The alternatives are all in use and worth having. Planchar oreja is the funniest, echarse una pestañita is the shortest, and echarse un jeto is the bluntest - with quedarse jetón for the state, as in me quedé jetón. Echarse un sueñito and una dormidita are the softest. Una siesta is the full-size, in-a-bed version. - You will occasionally hear the diminutive stacked for a joke, but what people normally say for a shorter one is un coyotito chiquito, or just nada más un coyotito. Common mistake: - Treating the diminutive as decoration. Coyote on its own would not mean this; coyotito does, and the -ito is what makes the nap small, quick and forgivable. Un coyote is a different word entirely. - Mixing it up with coyote in the paperwork sense. Un coyote is a fixer who moves your documents through an office for a fee, and at the border the word means something much heavier. The nap is a separate word that happens to share an animal. Examples: - Voy a echarme un coyotito. — I'm going to take a quick nap. - Me eché un coyotito de veinte minutos y quedé como nuevo. — I had a twenty-minute nap and felt like a new man. - Después de la comida siempre me echo un coyotito. — I always take a nap after lunch. - No lo despiertes, anda planchando oreja. — Don't wake him, he's having a nap. Mini dialogue: A: ¿Y el ingeniero? B: Salió. Anda en el coche. A: ¿Otra vez echándose un coyotito? B: Comió pozole. ¿Usted qué esperaba? A: Nada, tienes razón. Que duerma. FAQ: Q: What does echarse un coyotito mean? A: To take a quick nap - short, opportunistic, and usually somewhere that is not a bed. Twenty minutes after lunch is the classic. Q: Why is a nap called a little coyote? A: Coyote comes from Náhuatl coyotl, and the standard account is that coyotes are nocturnal and doze through daylight in short stretches - which fits both the animal and the nap. What is not recorded is when the phrase was first used. Q: What is the difference between un coyotito and una siesta? A: Size and intent. Una siesta is a proper nap, in a bed, planned. Un coyotito is short, improvised and often in a chair or a car. Q: What does planchar oreja mean? A: To iron your ear - the other Mexican way to say take a nap, and slightly funnier. It works anywhere echarse un coyotito does. Q: What is echarse una pestañita? A: A little eyelash - an even shorter nap. It is the one people use when they mean five minutes rather than twenty. Q: Is it rude to say you're taking a coyotito at work? A: Not at all. Voy a echarme un coyotito is a normal sentence in a Mexican office, usually meaning twenty minutes in a car, and nobody treats it as a confession. Q: Is this related to coyote meaning a fixer? A: Both go back to the same animal, but they are separate words in use. Un coyote is somebody who moves your paperwork through an office for a fee, and at the border it means something much heavier. Neither has anything to do with sleeping. Q: What does quedarse jetón mean? A: To be fast asleep - me quedé jetón. It is what Mexicans say far more often than jetazo. Careful with the other sense: jetón also means sulky or annoyed. Q: What is dormir la mona? A: Sleeping off a drunk. It looks like a nap phrase and is not, and the two do not swap in either direction. Related words: flojera, echar-la-hueva, echarse-un-taco, comida-corrida, apachurrado