Spanish Word of the Day

Quote: Wizard

Palabra: Carrete - Today's SWD means spool/reel/roll/coil.
The assignment for the advanced readers is to confirm or deny a common etymology with carretera (highway).

They are both from Spanish/Latin carro which means "cart". It is also the source of English "car" (via Old French "carre" 700 years ago).

The word also means "to party" ( colloquial) particularly in Southern cone. I don't know if it carries that connotation in Mexico.

Quote: Wizard

Alice pone un bariburrillo de comidas en su carne mechada. = Alice puts a hodge-hodge of food in her meatloaf.

The WoD is really obscure.

"Mechada" referring to meat, means solid (as opposed to ground) meat wrapped or stuffed (through a slit) with something, suually a vegetable mix.

There's no one term translation for meatloaf. the best would be "pastel de carne"

Quote: Nareed

There's no one term translation for meatloaf. the best would be "pastel de carne"

These pictures are pretty elaborate. The word "meat loaf" in English generally has implications of something fairly bland

Quote: Wizard

Hasta muchos años, tuvo un carrete gigante para mi mesa de cenar. Many years ago I used a giant spool as my dining room table.

I know you don't like it, but re-translating this is a must: "Until many years ago he had a giant spool on his table of dinner."

You need to be careful with literal translations. Often they seem ok, but turn sense into nonsense.

Now, as to the translation: HACE muchos años USÉ un carrete COMO mesa de COMEDOR."

See, PARA means FOR but as in something being used on something else.

A room where meals are eaten is called COMEDOR. In a house this means the room for formal meals, if there is one. If a smaller room is used for informal meals, it's called antecomedor in most places, desayunador in others (though meals other than breakfast are eaten there)

Quote: Nareed

A room where meals are eaten is called COMEDOR. In a house this means the room for formal meals, if there is one. If a smaller room is used for informal meals, it's called antecomedor in most places, desayunador in others (though meals other than breakfast are eaten there)

What if it is a modern house, and the dining area is somewhat in the middle between formal and informal? By default to you go to antecomedor or comedor?



In the same picture is 4 stools where the family probably eats breakfast. It may vary, but I think that most people would call this dining space a "counter" .

The dictionary lists these words as equivalent, but it doesn't list one for Mexico.
España encimera
Argentina mesada
Colombia mesón
Venezuela tope

Fecha: 18-5-14
Palabra: Perfidia

Today's SWD means perfidy. Just what does perfidy mean, you might ask. It means treachery.

The assignment for the advanced readers is to find any other words in English or Spanish with the perf prefix, and what does it mean?

Ejemplo time.

El Coronel Klink dijo que estoy pérfido por cavando un túnel secreto. = Colonel Klink said I am treacherous for digging a secret tunnel.

Quote: Wizard

The assignment for the advanced readers is to find any other words in English or Spanish with the perf prefix, and what does it mean?

The Latin prefix per means "through, during, by means of, on account of, as in".

Quote: Wizard

El Coronel Klink dijo que estoy pérfido por cavando un túnel secreto. = Colonel Klink said I am treacherous for digging a secret tunnel.

"...dijo que SOY... por CAVAR un..."

¡Feliz día de Victoria!

Fecha: 19-5-14
Palabra: Araña

I'm sure the beginning students right now are saying, "Everyone knows araña means spider, Wiz. Give us something harder." However, did you know that it also means chandelier?

The question for the advanced readers is whether it is not a coincidence, perhaps because a chandelier looks a little like a spider, or are they just another homonym?

Ejemplo time.

Si quema la cuerda, la araña caería a la cabeza del monstruo. = If you burn the rope, the chandelier will fall on the monster's head.

P.S. Please click on the link above. I LOVE this game! At the age of almost 49, it is about the only computer game I can beat anymore.

Quote: Wizard

perhaps because a chandelier looks a little like a spider?

It seems to be because a chandelier looks like a spider (and for no other reason). Sometimes they say araña de luces or Una lámpara de araña to be explicit.

Some of the more modern designs actually look like spiders.


The meaning of "chandelier" in English as an elaborate light seems to go back more than 800 years. Possibly because we used simpler words like candlestick to refer to more commonplace lights. In Spanish candelero means candlestick, and "candelero" is the equivalent Latin descendant of French "chandelier".

I think many of the French words assumed lofty positions in the English language, simply because it was the language of the ruling class. As Spanish developed, it may not have necessarily associated such words with grandiose concepts.