piso patera

Spanish

Etymology

Literally, “dinghy/small boat apartment”. Because people live in the apartment just as immigrants come in patera (small boat or dinghy especially used by illegal immigration to cross the Mediterranean Sea), that is, crowded together.

Noun

piso patera f (plural pisos pateras)

1. (Spain) an apartment in which many people, especially illegal immigrants, live in cramped conditions
   • 2019 October 23, “Así viven, por 300 euros, en un 'piso patera' de Usera”, in Telemadrid‎: