Spanish Word of the Day

Quote: Wizard

Fecha: 10 de Octubre, 2017
Palabra: Bodega

I will say that my prior understanding of a bodega was a small store, especially one that might be found in a large city. Never a chain and always operated as a small family business. New York City has lots of them. It does not seem to be as much of a thing on the west coast.

Since 1970s in American English it has come to mean "corner convenience store or grocery". especially in a Spanish-speaking community, but in New York City and some other places used generically.

According to DRAE it also means generic local store in Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica and Ecuador.
Bodega Aurrerá is a Mexican discount-store owned by American discount chain Walmart. The chain was first established in 1970 in Mexico City. Though every Aurrerá store was converted into Walmart, both Aurrerá and Bodega Aurrerá names survived, the former as a product brand and the latter as a store.

But the word's etymology is from
Greek apotheke "depot, store" -->
Latin apotheca, "storehouse" ---> 2 descendants
(1) Spanish bodega "a wine shop; wine-cellar"
(2) Old Provençal "botica" ---> French "boutique" (1300s)

The Greek/Latin word is the ancestor of English "apothecary" while the word "bodega" was borrowed by English from Spanish since 1846, originally to mean "wine shop" and evolved into it's present meaning over a century later. The French word, "boutique" obviously was also borrowed by English as early as 1767 to mean "small shop" which evolved into "small trendy shop" by the 1950s.

Quote: Pacomartin

According to DRAE it also means generic local store in Mexico,

No, it doesn't. The generic term for a supermarket or big grocery store is "súper." A small store is "tiendita" meaning, curiously enough "small store."

Quote:

Bodega Aurrerá is a Mexican discount-store owned by American discount chain Walmart.

Yes. It's also quite bigger than a regular supermarket, and has a warehouse feel to it (unfinished walls, tin roofs, etc.)

Quote:

The chain was first established in 1970 in Mexico City. Though every Aurrerá store was converted into Walmart, both Aurrerá and Bodega Aurrerá names survived, the former as a product brand and the latter as a store.

The Superama stores also survived, though they went a bit upscale. the restaurants and department stores were spun off.

This happened to day at the office. let's see if someone here can 1) translate it, and 2) make a similar pun in English (I can't think of one):

"No encuentran el chocolate para mesa hexagonal. Ha de ser porque la mesa cuadrada es más común."

Part of the error is that the right term is "chocolate DE mesa." This is a tablet made of chocolate and half a metric ton of sugar (or so it feels) that dissolves in hot milk.

Quote: Nareed

"No encuentran el chocolate para mesa hexagonal. Ha de ser porque la mesa cuadrada es más común."

This attempt is without any help. The de is really throwing me off. I wonder if it is a conjugation of some verb I don't know, but then I would expect an accent over the e.

They couldn't find chocolate for the hexagonal table. It had to be because square tables are more common.

Since I don't get the pun, I can't make any comparisons to English.

Quote: Wizard

They couldn't find chocolate for the hexagonal table. It had to be because square tables are more common.

Very close. "It must be" rather than "it had to be."

Quote:

Since I don't get the pun, I can't make any comparisons to English.

I'm wondering if this kind of error even exists in English. In Spanish it's very common, and even has a name (I forget which it is). The gist is that the adjective is applied to the wrong noun, because the second noun should be understood as an adjective as well.

In English "chocolate de mesa" would be "table chocolate." The tablets in the leading two brands are hexagonal in shape for some reason (they don't have to be). In this case the customer specified the shape. The right order would be "Chocolate hexagonal de mesa" as both the shape and the type are adjectives. As English places the adjectives before the noun, the error may not occur. "Hexagonal table chocolate" seems not to mean chocolate for a hexagonal table.

I run across this error frequently. It seems particularly common in food distribution.

Hexagonal table chocolate should be hyphenated as Hexagonal-table chocolate if the table is hexagonal. If the chocolate where hexagonal you would have to use more words. I would say "Hexagonal chocolate for the table." If you wanted to clarify that both were hexagon I suppose I would say, "Hexagonal chocolate for the hexagonal table." I can't think of a similar problem in English.

However, in English we have a problem answering statements like this, "You didn't want to go, did you?" Whether the person responding says "yes" or "no," it isn't clear whether he wanted to go or not. I blame those phrasing questions like that for the ambiguity.

Quote: Nareed

"No encuentran el chocolate para mesa hexagonal. Ha de ser porque la mesa cuadrada es más común."

Part of the error is that the right term is "chocolate DE mesa." This is a tablet made of chocolate and half a metric ton of sugar (or so it feels) that dissolves in hot milk.

The advertisements that I see are either for chocolate squares or octagonal pieces. I don't see ads for hexagonal pieces. Could the chocolate shape meant to be reminiscent of Real de a Ocho, also known as the Spanish dollar, upon which the USA dollar was based?

Quote: Wizard

However, in English we have a problem answering statements like this, "You didn't want to go, did you?" Whether the person responding says "yes" or "no," it isn't clear whether he wanted to go or not. I blame those phrasing questions like that for the ambiguity.

According to linguist John McWhorter, the word "no" is being used to mean "yes." Using your example above, the response might be "Yeah, no."

Quote: Pacomartin

The advertisements that I see are either for chocolate squares or octagonal pieces. I don't see ads for hexagonal pieces.

You know, I didn't actually count the sides of the box.

They had chocolate shops all over Oaxaca called Mayordamo, but I don't remember the chocolate as very sweet. I thought that milk chocolate was a European invention.