Spanish Word of the Day

Quote: Pacomartin

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.

You should try related words. For example, candy, sweets, confection.

Now, I wouldn't call confection arcane, but it should be the least often used of the three. In general short words beat longer ones (and long words forced into the language tend to get shortened; i.e. fridge, auto, nuke, bike, etc).

BTW, speaking of candy, in Spanish there is no word or term for candy bar. The word "dulces" and "dulce" means candy. But at least in Mexico it means mostly "hard candy," although it can mean other types of candy, and a candy store, or more likely these days a candy department in a larger store, is called "dulcería." Products like Almond Joy, Milky Way, Kit Kat, Kisses, Snickers, etc are all referred to as "chocolates," (and that's Spanish, you can tell because the "e" is pronounced). Of course most of these are covered in chocolate, but the term applies also to solid chocolate bars like Hersheys, or chocolate bars mixed with nuts or other things.

It took me months to say or think "candy bar" and not picture a large piece of cristalized sugar with flavoring. To this day I'm as likely, still, to refer to a Milky Way as a chocolate rather than a candy bar.

Quote: Nareed

You should try related words. For example, candy, sweets, confection. Now, I wouldn't call confection arcane, but it should be the least often used of the three. In general short words beat longer ones (and long words forced into the language tend to get shortened; i.e. fridge, auto, nuke, bike, etc).

Remember that this is not evaluating the word per se, but only evaluating the reading level of the pages found by doing a search on the word.
The word "confection" was not very different than "sweets" or "candy", but "confectionary" drew up much more advanced reading websites. While "confection" is seldom used in spoken English, it is a fairly common written word from cooking websites, most of which are written in basic English.

As I remember it in Oaxaca the chocolate was not normally sweet, and the preferred means of ingesting chocolate was in drinks.

Quote: Wikipedia

The first recorded shipment of chocolate to Europe for commercial purposes was in a shipment from Veracruz to Sevilla in 1585. It was still served as a beverage, but the Europeans added cane sugar to counteract the natural bitterness and removed the chili pepper while retaining the vanilla, in addition they added cinnamon as well as other spices.

Results by reading level for sweets:
Basic 67%
Intermediate 31%
Advanced 2%

Results by reading level for candy:
Basic 71%
Intermediate 27%
Advanced 2%

Results by reading level for confection:
Basic 77%
Intermediate 18%
Advanced 4%

Results by reading level for confectionery:
Basic 36%
Intermediate 48%
Advanced 15%

Quote: Pacomartin

As I remember it in Oaxaca the chocolate was not normally sweet, and the preferred means of ingesting chocolate was in drinks.

Yeah, the natives were brutal and primitive. The Spaniards were brutal and modern. Or as a friend told me, the natives sacrificed people all at once, the Spaniards took a lifetime.

Guess who won? :P

Anyway, the big mystery in Mexican cooking is mole. This is a thick sauce made with cocoa beans (essentially chocolate), chilies, spices and some kind of fatty additive like lard, schmaltz (no, really, but it's not called that), and it comes in many varieties (Poblano, Oaxaqueño, black, red, green, etc). There are legneds concerning its origin and even its name.

To me it seems a simple progression on the practice of mixing cocoa and chilies. Don't you think a put-upon Aztec housewife ever made a meal with whatever she happened to have in the pantry (if she had a pantry), or whatever she could get in the market? Or that some Aztec aristocrat did not experiment with cooking?

Traditional Mexican candies do not often have chocolate. The mix of amaranth and chocolate is a rather modern take subbing the chocolate for a sweet syrup or maguey "honey." Ask anyone who attended the last two WoVCons (thoug I think I did have some chocolate borrachitos).

The sole really traditional Mexican chocolate comes in thick tablets laoded with sugar. It gets dissolved in milk and drunk hot. It's good, but also has enough calories in fat and sugar to give you a clogged artery and diabetes at once :P

Quote: Nareed

Yeah, the natives were brutal and primitive. The Spaniards were brutal and modern.

I think the Aztecs were more sophisticated than the Spaniards in almost every way except armaments. In the long term, the fact that doomed the Aztecs was simply that they had not lived in close quarters with farm animals, and the diseases they got from the Europeans were far more effective in mass killing than the diseases the Europeans got from them.

Quote: Pacomartin

I think the Aztecs were more sophisticated than the Spaniards in almost every way except armaments. In the long term, the fact that doomed the Aztecs was simply that they had not lived in close quarters with farm animals, and the diseases they got from the Europeans were far more effective in mass killing than the diseases the Europeans got from them.

All that is so. But the brutality remains. Even if you set aside the practice of human sacrifice, read up on other rituals. Most Mesoamerican cultures show a remarkable affinity for sharp instruments and blood. And their level of technology was rather primitive compared to Europe's.

Fecha: 14-11-13
Palabra: Trama

Today's SWD means plot/scheme.

The assignment for the advanced readers is to confirm or deny a common etymology with the English trampoline.

El profesor tiene una nueva trama para rescate de la isla. = The professor has a new scheme to be rescued from the island.

No relation to trampoline" or even to "trauma""

But "trama" seems to congure images of sewing patterns first.


The word does mean plot/scheme but in the darker sense . In English we can use plot or scheme in a very lighthearted sense.

Quote: Wizard

Today's SWD means plot/scheme.

Yes, but:

Quote:

El profesor tiene una nueva trama para rescate de la isla. = The professor has a new scheme to be rescued from the island.

When you used meaning a kind of plan or scheme, it's used in verb form. So "El profesor está tramando...." Even so the connotations are sinister. For a rescue the professor would be planning, not plotting or scheming. So the word you want is "planeando." "Tramar" in this case would be more appropriate if the porfessor had gone off his rocker and were plotting a mass killing spree of everyone in the island.

Also, well, you don't like my retranslations for meaning (or lack thereof), so I'll just say you said the professor has a scheme to rescue the island.

Quote: Nareed

When you used meaning a kind of plan or scheme, it's used in verb form. So "El profesor está tramando...." Even so the connotations are sinister. For a rescue the professor would be planning, not plotting or scheming.

So the word you want is "planeando." "Tramar" in this case would be more appropriate if the porfessor had gone off his rocker and were plotting a mass killing spree of everyone in the island.

Also, well, you don't like my retranslations for meaning (or lack thereof), so I'll just say you said the professor has a scheme to rescue the island.

I am not sure where esquema ranks on the sinister scale in Spanish. From the DRAE definition, I am not even sure it means the same thing as it does in English DRAE: Idea o concepto que alguien tiene de algo y que condiciona su comportamiento.

From google search it looks as if the first thing people think of when they see the word as a noun is knitting techniques.

So would you says para ser rescatados de la isla for the final phrase?

Quote: Pacomartin

I am not sure where esquema ranks on the sinister scale in Spanish.

Low. It means a diagram, blueprint, or plan.

Quote:

So would you says para ser rescatados de la isla for the final phrase?

Yes, that works well enough.

BTW, I can hold on to this no longer:

Brain: I've only seen one episode of that insipid show.
Pinky: Which one was it? I know them all!
Brian: It was the one where that innocuous dunderhead Gilligan ruins it for everyone.
Pinky: Hmm. I don't think I've seen that one.