Spanish Word of the Day

All indications are that these words are coming from his children's books that were translated by European Spanish speakers.

Quote: Nareed

So now I'm guessing you got it from a translator who likes to display arcane erudition or who owns a thorough thesaurus.

I usually don't know an arcane word from a common one, so must take what I can get. I will say that most translations of English books seem to be in Spanish Spanish.

Quote: Pacomartin

Give me a break. You know English better than I do, and it's my native language. I had to look up "turn of phrase"

Chalk it up to "luck." My reading may be rather limited to largely to SF and Alternate History, plus now science and straight history as well, but the range of authors I've read spans a big part of a whole century (roughly from the 1930s to the present). In AH, too, some authors try to portray the language of the time they meddle in, too. So I've come across a broader range of expressions than perhaps is common.

Quote: Wizard

I usually don't know an arcane word from a common one,

You will, eventually.

Quote:

I will say that most translations of English books seem to be in Spanish Spanish.

That's a rather big problem. I wonder how much implied anti-semitism remains in modern Spaniardish.

Quote: Wizard

I usually don't know an arcane word from a common one, so must take what I can get. I will say that most translations of English books seem to be in Spanish Spanish.

Sometimes googling the word and looking for images helps. With "dehesa" I get a picture of Spanish cheese, and a movie theater in Spain, and hundreds of images of pastoral scenes. It seems to be a European word.



The DRAE definition does not give me a clue if the word is used in Mexico
dehesa. (Del lat. defensa, defendida, acotada).
f. Tierra generalmente acotada y por lo común destinada a pastos.
dehesa carneril.
f. dehesa en que pastan carneros.
dehesa potril.
f. dehesa en que se crían los potros después de separados de las madres, que es a los dos años de nacidos.


The verb "adehesar" doesn't seem to translate into English at all. It is the equivalent of "desertification", a word which only appeared in English in the last 40 years. Only instead of making a "desert" you make a "pasture".

Quote: Pacomartin

Sometimes googling the word and looking for images helps.

Practice is a lot better. For example, if it's used in a newspaper story but nowhere else, then it's arcane enough, or at least not in popular use. But these are things one picks up in time, there are no hard and fast rules about it.

It's been suggested that one way to evaluate an English word is to do a google search, and see what kind of reading level the web pages are that use the word.
For instance "candy" is primarily used in web pages written at a basic reading level, while "viscosity" is used primarily by web pages at an advanced level.

Results by reading level for candy:
Basic 71%
Intermediate 27%
Advanced 1%

Results by reading level for ineffable:
Basic 26%
Intermediate 51%
Advanced 23%

Results by reading level for viscosity:
Basic 6%
Intermediate 8%
Advanced 85%


The Spanish Google does not rate web pages by reading level. I can try the Spanish words in English google, but the results are tainted because "Prada" is a brand name.

Results by reading level for dehesa:
Basic 23%
Intermediate 46%
Advanced 31%

Results by reading level for prada:
Basic 53%
Intermediate 43%
Advanced 4%

Fecha: 13-11-12
Palabra: Enderezar

Today's SWD means to straighten/set right.

The assignment for the advanced readers is to confirm or deny a common etymology with rezar. Could it be one prays in the hope that god will straighten out a problem?

Ejemplo time.

Gilligan trató a enderezar el lío, pero solo lo hizo peor. = Gilligan tried to straighten up the mess, but only made it worse.

Quote: Wizard

Gilligan trató a enderezar el lío, pero solo lo hizo peor. = Gilligan tried to straighten up the mess, but only made it worse.

That's not quite the right usage (see, no retranslation). The term is usually applied to things, say like setting a frame on a wall. COncerning a mess or a problem, the action to make things right is "resolver" or more commonly "arreglar."

They don't appear to be cognates. The Latin recitāre | recitō (“recite”) is the ancestor of "rezar".

"Enderezar" is related to Spanish "derecho" which means "right" or "set straight" and a cognate of English word "direction".