I first heard this word used in its
Present context over 35 years ago. Julio Cross, a well known personality in today's Dominican Republic (Former Superintendent of Electricity and then Superintendent of Banks) was one of the first "educated" people I ever heard use the term to mean "thing" . Like in "P?same esa vaina".
And we were on a softball field...
In fact, for the longest time, it seemed like Julio was the only one around the UCMM campus that used the word a lot in the non-sexual, non-botanica sense.
"Qu? vaina lo tuyo!" was a favorite....Almost translates to 'What a pain you are!'
While not on the same plane as the good ol' Anglo-Saxon term that is so dear to us all-which should actually be used instead of "golf" for that game, but apparently
that four-lettered word was used to mean
that before golf became golf...
Oh well....."vaina" is with us in the Dominican Republic to stay for a long time. I supose that it is almost the Dominican substitute for "Like" , or "You know" or "thing" when a person has to fill in with "something"
Like those wonderful lists we have received by email that list the myrid uses of "Phuck" and "schitt" , 'vaina" has a lot of uses.
T? eres una vaina! = You are somethng else, man! Or "What an a$$hole!"
Echar una vaina = to cause a problem
Qu? Vaina! = Holy schitt!
Que vaina es esa? = What's that?
And so on and so forth
HB