No-one is ever going to persuade me that a cock goes quiquiriqui or kikiriki, no matter what its nationality. After years of beratement (yes, I know this word doesn’t exist but I feel it should) from my students, however, I am prepared to admit that cock-a-doodle-doo is also pushing it a bit. Perhaps the Japanese [...]
Animals ’speak’ different languages. An English dog responds to “Sit!” a Catalan dog to “¡Seu!” and a Spanish dog to the long-winded “¡Siéntate!” Of course, what they are responding to (or not, as the case may be) is the tone, not the word. My cats don’t care what I call them as long as I [...]
If Paco and Curro seem remote from Francisco, what can we say about Pepe – the nickname for José? José (Joseph) was, of course, the surrogate father of Jesus, so one explanation is that Pepe is an abbreviation of the Latin Pater Putativus (Putative Father) – PP. Another possibility is that the nickname drifted over [...]
The Spanish are hugely fond of metaphorically defecating in and on all kinds of unsuitable surfaces and recipients. The least alarming is the sea. Me cago en la mar, I shit in the sea. Or for those of more gentile disposition, me cachis en la mar, or even just me cachis …. I euphemistically shit [...]
Our hosting company is as about as much use as the last slice of Bimbo bread (más inútil que la última rebanada del pan Bimbo). Not only did they ‘lose’ the site this morning, they also managed to bin all the new comments posted over the last two days. We LOVED all the expressions that [...]
