Spanish Word of the Day

Quote: Pacomartin

All Romance languages use the same word for dream and sleep. Old English did the same, but in the middle ages the two concepts diverged.

To sleep = Dormir
To dream = Soñar
Dream = Sueño

Then for some reason if you're sleepy you'd say "tengo sueño." If something woke you up and you couldn't get back to sleep, you'd say "me quitó el sueño."

Quote: Nareed

Then for some reason if you're sleepy you'd say "tengo sueño." If something woke you up and you couldn't get back to sleep, you'd say "me quitó el sueño."

I said that very poorly. Romance languages can use the word for dream to refer to being sleepy. You can't do that in English.

The English word "dormant" (meaning inactive) is closely related to "dormir" (to sleep).

Quote: Pacomartin

I said that very poorly.

Actually I nodded in agreement when I first read it, then thought it over. So you weren't the only one.

Quote: Wizard

Speaking of PR, one of my other many unanswered questions in my head is just how to define what PR is. Is it a part of the US or not? Is it a country within a country, kind of like Scotland and Wales? To help answer this question, I asked in the duty free store in Miami, "If I'm going to Puerto Rico, may I buy something here?" The salesman said, "I'm sorry, but no. However, you can on your way back." I asked why but he didn't know the answer.

Puerto Rico is a US territory because they have limited citizenship and are overseen directly by the federal government. Specifically, they cannot vote for the POTUS unless they are living outside of the island. The organized territories are PR, USVI, Northern Marianas, and Guam. You have to go through passport control to move from Northern Marianas to Guam.

The US has 11 unincorporated unorganized territories of which American Samoa has a population under 60K, and Wake Island has a population under 200. The other 9 are uninhabited.

Puerto Rico is not an autonomous region which many countries reserve for islands or regions with a different culture than the mainland (i.e. Sicily, Sardinia to Italy, and Corsica to France).

Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion, which have the same status as metropolitan regions of France, so there is no legal difference between these citizens than someone who lives in Paris.

There are five overseas collectives of France: French Polynesia, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and Wallis and Futuna. These people do not have full rights of citizenship.

Let me as this simple question. Do those born in Puerto Rico carry U.S. passports?

Quote: Wizard

Let me as this simple question. Do those born in Puerto Rico carry U.S. passports?

Yes they do.

I have been to Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, and Guam many times for work (4-10 visits to each place). I will tell you that they don't require a passport to Guam, but they give you a lot of grief if you don't bring one.

And they do immigration if you are traveling from Guam to Saipan (130 miles) as you are actually going from one territory to another (Guam to Northern Marianas).

Quote: Pacomartin

Puerto Rico is a US territory because they have limited citizenship and are overseen directly by the federal government. Specifically, they cannot vote for the POTUS unless they are living outside of the island. The organized territories are PR, USVI, Northern Marianas, and Guam. You have to go through passport control to move from Northern Marianas to Guam.

So they're a little like a bit of leftovers from the XIX Century?

Fecha: 7-4-14
Palabra: radicar

Today's SWD means to settle in someplace. As we might say in English, "put down roots."

The assignment for the advanced readers is to explain the meaning/origin of the prefix "rad" and how it applies to radicar.

Ejemplo time.

Los montañés radicaban en Beverly Hills. = The hillbilliles have set down roots in Beverly Hills.

MontañeSES

Quote: Wizard

The assignment for the advanced readers is to explain the meaning/origin of the prefix "rad" and how it applies to radicar.

The Latin word is radix = "root" (as in the English word radish).
Late Latin radicalis means "of or having roots".

The word is still used formally (and rarely) in English meaning "the roots of" as in "Judaism is the radix of Christianity". In mathematics a "radix" is the base of a system of logarithms.The radical sign in mathematics is from 1680s.

For almost 500 years (1300-1800) in English, the word had the meaning of "roots".

The notion of "change from the roots" started the phrase "radical reform" as early as 1786. The phrase was shortened to the point that "radical" meant "reformist" in less than 2 decades. So it is one of those rare examples in English where the primary modern meaning a word has evolved to mean the opposite of it's original meaning.