From a 1922 Spanish-English dictionary being processed now at Project Gutenberg. How impoverished English is, to lack a verb for the act of giving a blow with an aubergine.
berenjenaza, f. blow with an aubergine.
buzcorona, f. playful buffet to head of one who is respectfully kissing the hand.
candileja, f. oil receptacle of a lamp.--pl. foot-lights of a theatre; (bot.) willow-herb, deadly carrot.
cartapel, m. memorandum filled with useless matter.
cascapiñones, m. one who shells hot pine-nuts and cleans the seed; pine-nut cracker.
cascaruleta, f. (coll.) noise made by the teeth when chucked under the chin.
casiller, m. in the royal palace, servant who empties the close-stools.
casorio, m. (coll.) inconsiderate marriage; informal wedding.
cejijunto, ta, a. having eye-brows that meet.
celia, f. beverage made of wheat; a beer.
centímano, na a. (poet.) having a hundred hands.
cigoñal, m. well-sweep.
cimillo, m. flexible twig on which a decoy-pigeon is tied.
cinca, f. any infraction of the rules of the game of nine-pins (ten-pins)
cisque, (coll.) to besmear, to dirty.--vr. to ease nature
coche parado, balcony over a street full of persons.
codal, a. cubital, one cubit long: palo codal, stick hung round the neck as a penance.
codazo, m. blow with the elbow; a hunch.
cogotazo, m. slap on the back of the neck.
cojitranco, ca, a. nickname for evil-disposed lame persons.
cola de boca, lip glue.
colear, va. (Mex.) in bull-fights, to take the bull by the tail, while on horseback, and, by suddenly starting the horse, to overturn him; (S. Amer.) to fell a bull by twisting his tail.
colillero, ra, a. person who gathers cigar stubs for a trade.
colmillada, f. injury made by an eye-tooth.
cominear, vn. (coll.) to meddle in trifles or occupations belonging to women.
componte, secret order by which an obnoxious person is done away with.
consentido, a. applied to a spoiled child; applied to a cuckold by his own consent.
componte....hmmm, I think you've just discovered the (semi-)secret "Clinton Political PITA Protocol".
ReplyDeleteAnd, I'm not touching colillero....not gonna do it.
0>:~}
How impoverished English is, to lack a verb for the act of giving a blow with an aubergine.
ReplyDeleteWhich shows a basic difference between Spanish and English. Words in Spanish have much more precise definitions than in English. For example, Spanish has two different verbs for "to be," roughly corresponding to long-term versus short-term states of being, while English has only one verb for "to be." Conversely, words in English generally have a wider range of meanings than words in Spanish. Precision of meaning or richness of meaning- take your choice.
Or pick your poison.
Why pick? Speak both, if you want.
ReplyDeleteI prefer profanity. It's universal.
ReplyDelete0>;~}
Heh: "vr. to ease nature."
ReplyDeleteThat's a euphemism in a dictionary. Very dangerous stuff, that. :)
How impoverished English is, to lack a verb for the act of giving a blow with an aubergine.
ReplyDeleteEasy enough to fix:
"Be careful, or I'll eggplant you."
Or for the anglophiles among us:
"Be careful, or I'll aubergine you."
Now all we have to do is to keep repeating this and eventually millions upon millions will accede to the linguistic change of "eggplant" also being a verb. And it will appear in some hard copy or online dictionary as such.
If people put "eggplanting" into practice, this will drive up eggplant sales. Perhaps we could get the Eggplant Producer's Council to get behind this.
Which reminds me of what current LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers said of Kevin Garnett, who played for Doc when he coached the Celtics: "For Kevin, the F-word was a noun, a verb, and an adjective."
You don't have to be English to like aubergines:I Dream of Aubergine With the Light Brown Hair.
I think it was in "Quartered Safe Out Here" by G. M. Frazier where the author said he'd never heard the F-word used as nominative adjective, verb and adverb all in a three word sentence until he joined the army.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
Isaac Asimov had a joke about that. The joke is constructed as a long story about a soldier's evening out with a woman, in which nearly every word is a variation on the F-word. The punchline is, "What do you think we did next? We had sex."
ReplyDelete