Spanish Matters - a blog in English and Spanish for those learning the language

Over the last five centuries hundreds of Spanish words have entered the English language. Don Pablo has been doing some research which will result in five articles on the more common ones. Here’s the first.

Part One: From adobe to desperado

Let’s start with the word adobe – an unbaked brick dried in the sun – which entered the English language as long ago as the 19th Century.

Originally used exclusively for a fan or devotee of bullfighting, aficionado is now used to describe someone taking an eager and informed interest in any pursuit. Also from the world of bullfighting come the words banderilla and banderillero, as well as bolero a short jacket, although the latter is also used for a dance, as in Ravel’s ____ .

In the world of drinks, English has adopted aguardiente (a fiery liquor distilled from grain or potatoes), amontillado (a dry, nutty sherry from the hill-districts of Montilla), bodega (a wine cellar, or wine shop), copita (a sherry glass), cafeteria, and cocoa (from cacao).

Geography has acquired arroyo (stream), canyon (from cañón), and chaparral (a dense undergrowth of thorns and brambles).

The animal world brings us bronco (an untamed horse), which might be kept in a corral, also burro (donkey), cockroach (from cucaracha) and coyote.

Bonanza, from the Spanish for prosperity, means sudden unexpected wealth and cáscara, the bark of the Californian buckthorn, was used as a laxative. Cargo is from the Spanish verb cargar (to load)

In food we have chocolate and chorizo. Cigar and cigarette are corruptions of cigarro and cigarillo respectively.

Words for people include caudillo (leader – Franco was known as El Caudillo, in the same way that Hitler was Der Führer and Mussolini Il Duce), conquistador and, our last word for today, desperado, neither of which need defining.

Look out for Part Two: From Eldorado to junta.

Hasta luego.

Nouns with different meanings depending on their gender.

We’ve all heard of false friends, words in Spanish that look like English words, but which have a completely different meaning, eg embarazada = pregnant, constipado = suffering with a cold. However, there are a number of Spanish nouns which have a different meaning depending on whether they have the definite article el or la, ie whether they are masculine or feminine.

Here are 30 in alphabetical order:

The Spanish language is complicated, yet fascinating, isn't it?

Hasta luego.

Don Pablo

In most Christian countries it has been commonplace for two thousand years for parents to choose biblical names for their children.  In England, for example, there was a time when most male babies were given at least one disciple’s or saint’s name: Andrew, James, John, Michael, Paul, Peter, Thomas, David, Francis, George, Joseph, etc.  Girls too: Ann, Elizabeth, Mary, Ruth, and so on.

However, in Spain, they have turned religious naming into an art form.  Even today, as Spain becomes more and more secular, most children are given a religious name or two.  Saints’ names feature strongly; indeed, every saint has a saint’s day (el día santo) which is celebrated more enthusiastically than birthdays are!  But, in addition, there is a whole host of other very religious names, which, when translated into English, sound very odd indeed to us. 

There are umpteen girls called Asunción (Assumption), Belén (Bethlehem), Concepción (Conception), Encarnación (Incarnation), Inmaculada (Immaculate), Montserrat (a pilgrimage site in Cataluña), although they invariably abbreviate these to make them sound less religiously formal, viz Conchi, Encarna or Encarni, Inma and Montse.

And what about all the different types of Virgin Mary?  There are María de los Ángeles, María del Carmen, María del Coro, María de la Cruz, María Dolores, María de la Paz, María del Pilar, all of which become, respectively, Angeles, Carmen, Coro, Cruz, Dolores (Loli), Paz, Pilar (Pili).  Then there are María Jesús, María José and María del Mar, which seem not to have a shortened version.

As for Spanish boys, there are a whole host of them called José, José María, Jesús, Ángel, Francisco, Pablo, Pedro, Antonio, Miguel.  I even know a few called Ezequiel, Moisés and Elías.

As we have seen with the girls, abbreviations are common: Paco for Francisco and Pepe for José, being two of the most common.  The story behind Pepe as the nickname for José is an interesting one.  On Spanish statues or paintings of Joseph the father of Jesus appear the letters p.p. at the bottom, standing for padre putativo (putative Father [of our Lord]) and how are the Spanish letters p.p. pronounced? You’ve guessed it: pe-pe. 

What we haven’t mentioned is that Spaniards have two surnames; the first is their dad’s and the second their mum’s. So typically a Spaniard’s full name is: Christian Name - 1st Surname (Father’s) – 2^nd Surname (Mother’s).  Offspring of a marriage take their father’s 1^st Surname and their mother’s 1^st Surname.  So, when Manuel Pérez Rodríguez marries Antonia Herrero Blanco, their children will be called Oscar Pérez Herrero and Francisca Pérez Herrero.  This ensures that the father’s name survives through the male line.

In tight-knit rural communities, cousins and other relatives often marry each other.  I was once a guest at a village wedding in Tenerife where the bride and groom were called Candelaria Báez Báez and Carlos Báez Báez.  No confusion about their children’s surnames there, then!

By the way, when you see two entirely different names on a flat’s nameplate, it doesn’t mean that the occupants are living ostentatiously in sin! Not at all, for Spanish women have always retained their own names on marriage.  Quite emancipated in such a fiercely traditional culture…

Happy listening and hasta luego…

Don Pablo is Paul Whitelock, a graduate in Spanish, former languages teacher, retired school inspector and translator. He has lived in the Serranía de Ronda with his German wife since 2008. He is now a writer and property developer.