Spanish Word of the Day

Fecha: 2-3-14
Palabra: Pantufla

Today's SWD means slipper.

The assignment for the advanced readers is to confirm or deny a common root pant in pantufla, pantalones, y panties.

Ejemplo time.

Quien es este pantufla de vidrio? = Whose is this glass slipper?

Quote: Wizard

The assignment for the advanced readers is to confirm or deny a common root pant in pantufla, pantalones, y panties.

There is a pa- suffix in a lot of Indo-European languages (words like pads, path, pantufla) that refer to things referring to feet. It shows up in Iranian, Dutch, Old English, Latin, etc. But it is distinct from pant, pantalones, y panties

The words for trousers (originally pantaloon) has a more complex origin (in both English and Spanish).


San Pantaleone, was a 3rd century Christian martyr.The name is of Greek origin and means "all-compassionate" .

He became popular in Venice. But in popular comedies they invented a character named Pantaleone who represented the Venetian. He wore tight long trousers (replacing knee-breeches), which presumably was the fashion in Venice. The word was adopted in English, French, Spanish to refer to the trousers. In English the shortened word "pants" was first recorded in 1840.

Quote: Wizard

In the continuing effort of learing Spanish, one day at a time, this topic is being resumed here at Diversity Tomorrow. Here are some of the main characters you can expect to see, based on the thread at Wizard of Vegas.

• Wizard: The enternal Spanish student. Despite his hard work, the Wizard can never seem to construct a simple sentence in Spanish without at least a few mistakes. In particular, he often blows the easy things, like not matching the right form of el/la/los/las to the subsequent noun. He also confuses para y por about 90% of the time. For his many stupid mistakes, he owes Nareed about 954 push ups.
• Nareed: Our faithful teacher. Nareed lives near Mexico City and is a native speaker. Her tireless work cleaning up after the Wizard's many mistakes is never ending. When it comes to how people actually speak Spanish, at least in Mexico, there is no higher source than Nareed around here.
• PacoMartin: Paco is an American "advanced student" who has a strong background in Spanish grammar and etymology. He is good at illustrating the meaning of words with images, especially of movie posters. Sometimes Paco and Nareed will disagree on something, which usually makes for educational and interesting reading.

!

I'd like to know what cocido means. Google translates it as cooked or more narrowly as stewed though I expect I am looking for an area where the most precise translation might be "fermented". So where is the Spanish translated in a manner that would be consistent with taking a few chillies as well as parsnips, celery, radish, turnips and carrots and fermenting them in the dark for a couple of weeks?
Alternatively... is there a type of cocktail that is known as The Cocido?
Alternatively... does anyone have either a Spanish or English term for such a chilie and vegetable fermentation product?

Quote: Fleastiff

Alternatively... does anyone have either a Spanish or English term for such a chili and vegetable fermentation product?

To ferment is fermentar and los alimentos fermentados are fermented vegetables.

Encurtidos are pickled products


Jalapenos Encurtidos are pickled chile pepper

Quote: Wizard

Quien es este pantufla de vidrio? = Whose is this glass slipper?

Since you don't like it when I correct your mistakes, I'll try posting an equivalent blunder from Spansh into English:

"Between no more, shut-uply, and drink a chair."

Now, in actual English that should read "Just come in, quietly, and have a seat." Can you guess the original Spanish?

BTW

Pantufla = Bedroom slipper

Zapatilla = Any slipper other than the frumpy, fuzzy things worn around bed-time and early in the morning before the coffee kicks in.

Quote: Nareed

Since you don't like it when I correct your mistakes,

I don't like it when you translate whatever I say in Spanish back to English because it seems to me that you do it in a mocking way. I'd prefer you just say the correct way to say what I wanted to say in Spanish.

Quote: Wizard

I don't like it when you translate whatever I say in Spanish back to English because it seems to me that you do it in a mocking way.

I'm sorry you feel that way.

My English teacher did that with me, too, and I found it mortifying that I could make such linguistic disasters. But nothing else can best show, in full, what the mistake is and how to correct it. And besides being mortified by my mistakes, I also found many of them hilarious. We shared many a good laugh over them (and don't bring up my pronunciation in those early days; the poor man was reduced to tears of laughter sometimes).

I still do it regarding myself, you know. The other week I was distracted by listening to "Parallel Worlds" by Michio Kaku while making meatloaf. I wound up, stupidly, adding the wheat bran to the glaze! I did not make a note saying "Don't add wheat bran to the glaze," because I already know this. Instead I noted, mentally, "meatloaf milanesas are a singualrly bad idea, Kathy. Focus!" (Just like that, too, BTW. I find myself thinking abstractly in English about 85% of the time).

Quote:

I'd prefer you just say the correct way to say what I wanted to say in Spanish.

I do that too. pointing out the full mistake itself is useless if a correction doesn't go along with it. Provided the correction isn't one you should come up with. Doing half the work wont help you.

Look, you won't learn a language without making mistakes. in fact, it's by making mistakes that you learn. So you may as well laugh at them than be tortured by failing to meet some kind of impossible standard.

Quote: Nareed

Since you don't like it when I correct your mistakes, I'll try posting an equivalent blunder from Spansh into English:

Nareed, your skill in English is undeniable. But sometimes a simple explanation should be sufficient

¿Quien es este ? - Who is this?
¿De quién este ? - Whose is this?

The possessive of who is whose.
The possessive of quien is de quién.

Possession: Possession or belonging, either physical or figurative, as indicated by "'s" in English is almost always translated using de followed by the possessor in Spanish: el carro de Matilda, Matilda's car; la clase de Sr. Gómez, Mr. Gomez's class; las esperanzas del pueblo, the people's hopes; ¿De quién es este lápiz? Whose pencil is this?

"Possession" is one of the extremely rare cases where English uses a suffix, and Spanish uses a preposition. Most of the time it is the other way around.

Quote: Pacomartin

Nareed, your skill in English is undeniable. But sometimes a simple explanation should be sufficient

Not really, and you happened to provide an opportunity:

Quote:

¿Quien es este ? - Who is this?

Correct

Quote:

¿De quién este ? - Whose is this?

Wrong. "¿De quién ES este? See, in your version you're saying "Whose this?"

Do you know I went months, litreally months, thinking "too" meant "double"? And that "a couple" meant "a few" or "some"? When I first read Clarke's "Rendesvouz with Rama" the word "vessel" had me stumped.

It's ok to get thigns wrong. I repeat, that is how you learn. but the nature of the mistake needs to be pointed out. Saying "don't say A, say B" does nothing to let you know why A is wrong and B is right.

Quote: Nareed

When I first read Clarke's "Rendesvouz with Rama" the word "vessel" had me stumped.

When I look up the noun vaso I get the following five definitions. What it doesn't tell me is which definition comes to mind immediately to a native speaker. I assume it is the first one.

drinking glass
glassful
vessel (container)
vessel (craft)
vessel (tube or canal that carries fluid in an animal or plant)

vaso -> Embarcación o barco y señaladamente su casco.


It sounds like you use "vaso" to refer to the ship's hull, rather than the ship itself.