Spanish Word of the Day

Quote: Nareed

No more than play and display seem like opposites to native English speakers.

English "display" is a cognate of Spanish "desplegar". The Spanish verbs plegar and desplegar are opposite actions.

The English word "play" is a completely different word from Old English. It originally meant to "move rapidly exercise; frolic; perform music" and centuries later meant "to take part in a game" . After even more centuries it meant "opposed to work" . To "play along" meaning to "cooperate" is from 1929.

Quote: Pacomartin

English "display" is a cognate of Spanish "desplegar". The Spanish verbs plegar and desplegar are opposite actions.

The English word "play" is a completely different word from Old English. It originally meant to "move rapidly exercise; frolic; perform music" and centuries later meant "to take part in a game" . After even more centuries it meant "opposed to work" . To "play along" meaning to "cooperate" is from 1929.

Yes, but keep two things in mind:

1) Most people don't know this
2) Almost no one recognizes a word or chooses to use it by comapring the derivation of it to a similar word.

It all comes down to the use a word is given. This is so in common word snad doubly so on slang.

So "display" might seem, to someone learning English let us say, to be the opposite of "play." But as one gets to know how the language is used, this ceases to be the case.

Antonyms are tricky in all languages, too. I once read an anecdote about a Englishman who ran a restaurant in India who was asked by a an employee what was the opposite of "responsible." Naturally he answered "irresponsible." The next day he sees a sign in the dinning room that read "We're irresponsible for objects left behind."

I've no idea whether this is true or not, but I've seen similar mistakes made, sometimes even in print.


BTW the two least understood phrases in Mexico are:

1) Sin aguacate
2) Sin queso

In the US the equivalent would be "Without ice."

Quote: Nareed

Antonyms are tricky in all languages, too.

I wouldn't call them antonyms. Good/bad hot/cold have opposite meanings. But the prefix indicates opposite actions. A privative, is a prefix that negates or inverts the value of the stem of the word.

colgar (“to hang up (a phone)”)
descolgar (“to pick up (a phone)”)

Quote: Nareed

BTW the two least understood phrases in Mexico are:
1) Sin aguacate
2) Sin queso
In the US the equivalent would be "Without ice."

I can't find any reference on the internet. Is that Mexico City slang? I just assumed the "sin hielo" meant "without ice".

Quote: Pacomartin

I just assumed the "sin hielo" meant "without ice".

Yes, that's exactly what it means.

Quote: Nareed

Yes, that's exactly what it means.

Then why doesn't
1) Sin aguacate mean "without avacados"
2) Sin queso mean "without cheese"?


Question #2:
I meet a Mr. López at a party. His brother is at the same party but in another room.

I say: "El señor López es calvo y gordo."
His brother is another room and says to a girl he just met : "Mi hermano está calvo y gordo."

I was told that this is correct Spanish, because having just met Señor López I must describe his characteristics as essential to him. But his brother presumably knew him when they were young, and can describe his middle aged characteristics as different.

Do you agree?

Quote: Pacomartin

Then why doesn't
1) Sin aguacate mean "without avacados"
2) Sin queso mean "without cheese"?

That's exactly what they mean.

I didn't say people don't know what these phrases mean. I said they don't understand them. See, if I tell you magnetohydrodynamics is the study of plasma, you'd know what it means. Do you understand it?

Quote:

Do you agree?

No.

Sorry to interrupt the conversation but it is time for a new word.

Fecha: 27-1-14
Palabra: Vara

Today's SWD means rod, as in "Spare the rod and spoil the child."

The question for the advanced readers is to confirm or deny a common etymology with the prefix var in such English word as variable, vary, and variety.

Ejemplo time.

Mi coche no va porque lanzé una vara. = My car won't go because I threw a rod.

Quote: Wizard

Today's SWD means rod,

Actually it's a wooden rod, or more specifically a piece of wood shaped like a rod. With a number of excpetions.

Quote:

Mi coche no va porque lanzé una vara. = My car won't go because I threw a rod.

1) Mi coche "no camina" or "no anda."
2) Lanzar means to physically throw somehting, or to launch something. It does not mean to bust something as it does in your example.

See, in this example I'd be wondering why you threw a branch at your car.

Quote: Nareed

1) Mi coche "no camina" or "no anda."

I think I've heard the Chevy "no va" story so many times that I went with va on instinct. I stand corrected.

Quote: Wizard

I think I've heard the Chevy "no va" story so many times that I went with va on instinct. I stand corrected.

It might be so elsewhere. In Mexico no one says that.

I'll let you in on a secret, too. In the late 70s gas was named "Extra" and "Nova" by Pemex. Poeple did NOT avoid using the cheaper one, Nova, because they thought it would render their cars immobile.

In the present day the two varieties are now named "Premium" and "Magna."