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. Here is Part Five, the final part of my selection of the more common ones.

Part Five – from sarsaparilla to zapateado

Lots of words for drinks or to do with drinks have entered English from Spanish. For example, sarsaparilla (a soft drink), sherry (a corruption of jerez, the Spanish name of the fortified wine made in and around the city of Jerez), and solera, which is the system used to maintain consistency and quality in wine, including sherry.

Apart from its original meaning of sun and shade, referring to seating at the bullfight, sol y sombra is also a style of coffee. Tequila, originally from Mexico, is a drink I can’t imagine anyone liking! You’d certainly need a siesta afterwards! Finally, we have yerba mate, an infusion of leaves.

Food items include salsa (sauce or gravy, but also a dance!), taco, a crispy wrap, tomato (from tomate), tortilla (an omelette in Spain, but a soft wrap in South America and a prostitute in some Spanish American countries!), tuna (from atún) and the flavouring vanilla (from vainilla).

Two other dances are the tango and the zapateado (a flamenco tap dance).

A vigilante in the USA wearing his ten-gallon hat (from Spanish tan galán meaning "so gallant (looking)" might say to his men “Vamoose”, a corruption of Vamos (Let’s go).

Geographical terms include sierra (mountain range), savannah (a mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem) and tornado.

Finally, we have savvy, from the Spanish verb saber, to know; sombrero; stampede, a corruption of estampida; supremo; torero and vertigo.

I hope you found this series of five articles interesting. Look out for the next series on English words entering Spanish.

Over the last five centuries hundreds of Spanish words have entered the English language. Here is Part Four of my selection of the more common ones.

Part Four: From palomino to rumba

In the animal world we have palomino and pinto, used to describe the colourings of horses, both of which you might find on a ranch, from rancho, or at a rodeo. The puma, a cougar by another name, is often found living in the pampas.

In the world of bullfighting, the picador is the torero on horseback who tries to tear the bull’s neck muscles with a lance, accompanied by the orchestra in the plaza de toros playing a pasodoble or two.

A pasodoble is, of course, a dance, as are a pavana and a rumba.

In the town or in the pueblo the locals might go for a paseo (stroll) around the plaza (square).

Words for people are peon, a labourer, politico, a politician, who might utter a pronunciamiento and renegade from the Spanish word renegado, previously from Medieval Latin renegatus, past participle of renegar (to deny).

In the world of food and drink we have potato from patata, and panada, a type of soup made from old bread, and pistacho, a nut. In a posada (inn) you might drink from a porrón, a type of glass carafe with a spout.

Clothing includes a poncho or a peto, a type of dungaree or overall.

Which just leaves us with patio and peccadillo which need no explanation.

Oh, and pelota, the Basque ball game. And ría, an inlet or fjord in Galicia.

The final part in this series of articles covers sarsaparilla to zapateado. Please look out for it.

This article is about the Spanish "ritual" of an early morning coffee. The Spanish is fairly straightforward. I hope you enjoy reading it.

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A los trabajadores españoles, a los desempleados y a las personas mayores les encanta ir a tomar un café, y a lo mejor un chupito o dos, a primera hora de la mañana. Ya sea para ver las noticias de televisión, ponerse al día con los chismes locales o desayunar temprano, hay algo para todos.

Don Pablo, quien es un participante habitual en este ritual, echa un vistazo a esta costumbre tan española.

Empecé a ir a tomar un café temprano por la mañana cuando adopté a Berti, lamentablemente ya no está con nosotros, y solía llevarlo a dar su primer paseo del día, terminando en el Hotel Don Benito en Fuente de la Higuera (Ronda, Málaga). Una taza de Campanini siempre daba en el blanco. Y conocer y charlar con los otros madrugadores también fue divertido.

Luego, cuando me mudé a Montejaque (Málaga) para trabajar en mi casa, Casa Real, me acostumbré a ir por un café al Bar Perujo, el único lugar que solía abrir a las 7:00 horas.

Andrés, ya fallecido (de Covid-19), sirvió un delicioso café, también Campanini, con gracia y gentileza. Su hijo, también llamado Andrés, a veces hacía los honores e igualmente bien. Este era el momento de averiguar qué estaba pasando en el pueblo.

Cuando Andrés murió, el bar cerró, para no volver a abrir. Ahora es un apartamento. Desafortunadamente.

En este punto, Álvaro, del Hotel Palacete de Mañara, asumió el papel de proveedor de café de madrugada. Vinieron las mismas personas, se consumieron las mismas bebidas y el mismo tipo de chismes pasaron de unos a otros.

Luego, en agosto, Álvaro dejó de abrir a las 7:00 horas porque los huéspedes del hotel se quejaban del ruido de debajo de sus habitaciones tan temprano por la mañana.

¡Desastre para los adictos a la cafeína! ¿Qué hacer?

Bueno, súbete al coche y baja a Benaoján, el pueblo más cercano.

Aquí se puede elegir entre dos excelentes bares matutinos, El Encuentro y La Palma. La Palma, con el barman Fran, abre a las 7:00 horas, pero El Encuentro abre sus puertas incluso antes, a las 6:00 horas. Inma está a cargo aquí. Ideal para insomnes como yo.

Ambos bares ofrecen un delicioso café (¡Campanini otra vez!) a 1 €, chupitos a 1 €, noticias de televisión y mucha bonhomie.

¡Viva el café madrugador!

Nota: Para leer un artículo interesante sobre el café, titulado HAS BEAN: Día Internacional del Café, haga clic en https://www.secretserrania.com/2020/10/has-bean-international-day-of-coffee-did-you-miss-it-too/

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Note: To read an English version of 'Café temprano' click https://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/puntosdevista/21360/early-morning-coffee.aspx

Over the last five centuries hundreds of Spanish words have entered the English language. Here is Part Three of my selection of the more common ones.

Part Three: From llama to paella

Spanish has donated a number of words for animals to the English language. In this section of the alphabet we have llama, from the Spanish llama, from Quechua llama, and mosquito from mosquito, literally "little fly".

Adjectives include loco, "mad" or "crazy"; macho, meaning male/masculine and the nowadays taboo word negro, from the Spanish negro, meaning black, and referring to a black person.

Words for people are matador, lit killer, for the star bullfighter, and mestizo, a person of mixed race.

Random words beginning with ‘m’ are machete (a broad heavy knife); mañana (tomorrow - although used in English to refer to a tendency among Spanish-speaking people to procrastinate); mantilla (a lace head scarf or veil); mascara (from the Spanish máscara meaning mask) and marijuana (a compound of the girls’ names María and Juana, but referring to the dried flowers of the cannabis plant which are smoked as an intoxicant).

In the world of food and drink English has borrowed manzanilla (a dry sherry, but also the Spanish for camomile); oloroso ( a full-bodied dark sherry); oregano (a herb) and paella (a rice dish with fish, meat and/or vegetables, typical of the Valencia region).

Look out for Part Four: From palomino to rumba

Hasta luego.

Over the last five centuries hundreds of Spanish words have entered the English language. Here is Part Two of my selection of the more common ones.

Part Two: From Eldorado to junta

Many Spanish words entered the English language from Spanish America via the United States. These include:

Eldorado, from el dorado, ” the golden one”,  a fictitious country rich in gold, believed by the Spanish of the 16^th Century to be in the region of the Upper Amazon. Nowadays it is used to refer to any region or prospect of enormous wealth;

estancia, a cattle farm in Spanish America;

gaucho, a half-breed mounted herdsman in South America;

gringo, any stranger in Mexico, especially a North American.  Similar to guiri in Spain;

hacienda, a country estate or plantation;

lariat comes from la reata, meaning "the strap, rein, or rope" from reatar ("to tie again") from atar "to tie (up)"

and lasso from Spanish lazo meaning "tie;"

The El Niño weather phenomenon in the Pacific is named after the Christ Child. It’s also the nickname for Spanish footballer Fernando Torres (Atlético Madrid, Liverpool, Chelsea, Atlético Madrid again) – now retired.

In the world of music and dance we have fandango, fiesta and flamenco.

Two food and drink words are fino, a dry sherry, and gazpacho, a cold “salad soup”.

An embargo derives from the Spanish embargar, to "seize" or "impound".

Guerilla, incommunicado and hurricane are Anglicised versions of the Spanish words  guerrillero, incomunicado and huracán respectively.

Guano is the word for bird droppings, good as fertiliser.

And, finally for today, a junta from the Spanish meaning literally "joint"; a board of joint administration or committee; sometimes used to refer to a group of military officers in command after a coup d'état.

Look out for Part Three: From llama to oregano

Hasta luego.