Spanish Word of the Day

Quote: Wizard

Sorry to bore you with that story. Maybe you had to be there to appreciate it.

I think it is a classic "you" story. Possibly the only gringo who comes back with a story about prostitutes fighting over synonyms. Also your friend is an idiot since the prostitute is not sleeping with him for how good his body looks.

The word "fósforo" is obviously related to English "phosphorus", Greek "Φωσφόρος" and Latin "Lucifer"meaning "light-bearer" and in Spanish could mean the element as well as a match.

In 1669 Hennig Brand or Brandt, also known as "Dr. Teutonicus" was an Hamburg alchemist who discovered phosphorus during his attempts to turn base metals into gold. He allowed a vat of urine to stand until it putrified. He boiled the resulting liquid down to a paste, which he heated to a high temperature, so that the vapors could be drawn into water and condensed into... gold. Brand didn't get gold, but he did obtain a waxy white substance that glowed in the dark. This was phosphorus, one of the first elements to be isolated other than those which exist free in nature. In the 1820's Samuel Jones started to produce Lucifers to sell in the USA to start fires.

The word "cerilla" also means "match" in Spanish but comes from the Latin word for "wax".


Lucifers from the civil war era.


Classic matchbooks saying "cerilla"

I light a match because I like the smell Demotivational poster,

Quote: Pacomartin

I think it is a classic "you" story. Possibly the only gringo who comes back with a story about prostitutes fighting over synonyms.

Yes, my idea of a good time.

Quote:

Also your friend is an idiot since the prostitute is not sleeping with him for how good his body looks.

How does that make him an idiot?

cerillO = match

cerillA = ear wax

fósforo = phosphorous

Quote: Wizard

How does that make him an idiot?

A prostitute doesn't care how big or small a man is. She is not in the business for pleasure. You can't turn off a prostitute by telling her you are small. You tell her you are "broke".

Interesting lesson from Nareed about cerillo/a . Masculine is "match" and feminine is "earwax". I can't find that distinction anyplace on the internet. "Earwax" is listed as a definition, but there is no distinction between masculine and feminine. Yet one more lesson in how you can't learn a language from the internet.

List of Spanish nouns whose meaning changes with gender.

Quote: Nareed

cerillO = match

cerillA = ear wax

fósforo = phosphorous

SpanishDict.com, which I know you hate, says the Spanish word(s) for match is:


1. fósforo (m) cerilla (f) (español de España)cerillo (m) (Am)

Quote: Pacomartin

A prostitute doesn't care how big or small a man is. She is not in the business for pleasure. You can't turn off a prostitute by telling her you are small. You tell her you are "broke".

Telling her you have a penis the size of a match is funnier. Also, if he said he didn't have money, the first one he did want might have overheard that and left. Then again, maybe he and I are just not as smart as you.

Quote: Wizard

Then again, maybe he and I are just not as smart as you.

I retract the statement. I didn't mean for it to be taken as a serious comment. Perhaps I should use emoticons more often.

Quote: Pacomartin

I retract the statement.

Retraction accepted.

For the next topic, I keep running across the word piña in Spanish translations, for contexts other than a pineapple. However, that is the only meaning I get from my various dictionaries. Here is the latest example from Harry Potter.

No había chicas entre los del equipo de Slytherin, que formaban una piña frente a los de Gryffindor y miraban burlonamente a Wood..

Please don't try to translate the capitalized words, they are proper nouns anyone familiar with the Harry Potter books would recognize.

So, what does piña mean in this context?

Quote: Wizard

No había chicas entre los del equipo de Slytherin, que formaban una piña frente a los de Gryffindor y miraban burlonamente a Wood..

Quote: RAE: piña. (Del lat. pinĕa)

1. f. Fruto del pino y de otros árboles. Es de forma aovada, más o menos aguda, de tamaño que varía, según las especies, desde 2 hasta 20 cm de largo y aproximadamente la mitad de grueso, y se compone de varias piezas leñosas, triangulares, delgadas en la parte inferior, por donde están asidas, y recias por la superior, colocadas en forma de escama a lo largo de un eje común, y cada una con dos piñones y rara vez uno.
2. f. ananás.
3. f. Mazorca del maíz, especialmente cuando carece de farfolla.
4. f. Conjunto de personas o cosas unidas o agregadas estrechamente.

The first definition refers to a "pinecone", the second to a "pineapple", the third to a "corn cob", and the fourth to a group of people forming a "cone".

I think the 4th definition is the appropriate one in this sentence.

Quote: Pacomartin

I think the 4th definition is the appropriate one in this sentence.

Thanks, I'm sure that is it, based on context.

In other news, I may be going to Nicaragua later this year. What do you know about the place, in terms of what a tourist should know?

Quote: Wizard

In other news, I may be going to Nicaragua later this year. What do you know about the place, in terms of what a tourist should know?

I've read about travel there, but I don't know anyone who has been there. People are looking for homes there since Costa Rica has gotten more expensive. The primary flight from the West Coast is to fly through Houston on United Airlines.

If you take such things seriously Nicaragua is not on the list of travel warnings by State Department

Quote: The State Department Travel Warnings

Warning are issued when long-term, protracted conditions that make a country dangerous or unstable lead the State Department to recommend that Americans avoid or consider the risk of travel to that country.
Mexico 11/20/2012
Honduras 11/21/2012
Haiti 12/28/2012
El Salvador 01/23/2013
Colombia 04/11/2013

Although I've never done it myself, for Central America outside of Panama and Costa Rica I would enroll in Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) just so they have a record of me being in the country.