Do you know the expression “A la chita callando”?.Well, in case that you do not, I will explain it to you.
To do one thing "A la chita callando" means to do it with much secrecy, with dissimulation or in secret. There are different theories about its origin. According to some experts, like Julio Cejador, its origin goes back to an old game called “chita” (jacks), that was played with tabas or talus bones (Astragalos).
Tabas or Talus bones
Now, I am going to talk to you about this game. According Julio Cejador, "chita is the taba (talus bones) with which the boys played, and the stick, drumstick or bone on which coins are placed and pulled with yews, from a distance, to knock it down, earning the (yew) that is closer to the money that fell".
Other linguists say that it goes back to the Middle Ages, when in the Almoravid era the Arabs introduced a feline, similar to the cheetah, in Spain, called a saeta or chita, which for its agility and ferocity were used to hunt. When Alfonso X decided to ban its use for hunting purposes, many hunters continued to use it secretly –therefore the expression “a la chita calando”, ie: “Hunting with the chita secretly”--.
A chita
For his part, José Luis García Remiro, in the book "What do we mean when we say" ?, defends that it would derive “from the interjective ¡chist !, which is a sound gesture that we use to impose silence when we need our call to be superimposed and it is not drowned by the screaming we want to silence”. From the same family is Chitón, a word to impose silence, which we usually say putting your finger in your mouth, concludes García Remiro.
Shushing
Well, I hope that you will like this article about the expression “A la chita calando”.
Until my next post, kind regards,
Luis.
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