LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

Partes de la anatomía humana son tabú en la conversación finolis. Sin embargo, el idioma crea todo tipo de alternativas, de eufemismos más o menos conseguidos para referirse a esa parte de la anatomía humana que se pueda considerar tabú. La parte inferior de la espalda se conoce como nalgas, que tiene, tanto en lenguaje estándar como vulgar, numerosas posibilidades. Las que reseño aquí tienen autenticidad escrita en mi Gran diccionario del argot: el sohez . Veamos: asentaderas, brisero, bul, bull, bulla, bullarengue, cacas, cachas, calicatas, culamen, culata, culera, culete, culibajo, culo, cachetes del culo, culo de pera, culo gordo, culón, culona, donde la espalda pierde su casto nombre, fondillo, fullín, glúteos, jebe, nalgas, nalgatorio, pandero, pompis, popa, popó, posaderas, posteridad, rabo, retaguardia, retambufa, rulé, saco, saco de la mierda, superculo, tirapedos, tras, trasero. La lista podría seguir, porque el lenguaje no conoce límites cuando se trata de rodear lo que no s...

The piropo was once the order of the day on Spanish streets. As social attitudes have evolved, this type of street compliment has largely faded, or at least become far less publicly acceptable. As a child, my mother and I would walk to meet my father. On the way, we passed a military barracks where a Spanish GI stood on guard. One day he addressed a piropo to my mother. Small as I was, I turned around and kicked his shin so hard that, startled, he dropped the rifle he was holding. I have never tolerated men harassing women. Spanish, however, remains lexically inventive when it comes to describing female attractiveness — sometimes playful, sometimes coarse, often revealing of a cultural attitude that blends admiration with objectification. MUJER atractiva cf. (afines): bollicao, bollo, bomba, bombón, bombonazo, buenorra, como un camión, cañón, cañonazo, chorba, para comérsela, esculpida, estupenda, guaperas, jaca, maciza, monada, monumento, de bandera, negraza, perchas, perita en dul...

Humankind is aggressive—physically and verbally—and both forms are dangerous. Verbal aggression in the shape of insults is widespread across languages, and I would venture to suggest that son of a bitch is one of the most widespread of them, at least in the Western world. I stand to be corrected. The expression has generated its euphemisms. In English, we find softened variants such as son of a bee , son of a biscuit , the jocular son of a gun , and the abbreviation SOB . One newspaper writes: “…but he is a damn son of a bee and yet I am very happy he was not killed” (News 24, November 24, 2017, U.S.). Y, claro, el castellano también recurre a atenuaciones del antiguo hijo de puta : hijo de pu , hijo de la Gran Bretaña , hijo de su madre … expresiones que suenan menos fuertes. The pattern itself— son of a + X , hijo de + X —is strikingly productive. Needless to say, I reject both such verbal aggression and violence in all its forms.

  “To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub,” Hamlet tells us, with his usual gift for turning a simple human activity into a metaphysical problem. Sleep, it seems, is never just sleep. How many hours should we sleep? Six? Seven? Eight? Nobody quite agrees. What does seem clear is that people like sleeping a lot—or at least, they like talking about it. Both Spanish and English offer a generous range of expressions to describe sleeping more than what is considered normal, whatever normal may be. Spanish, for instance, is particularly imaginative. One can dormir a pierna suelta , or sleep como un lirón, una marmota, un santo, un bendito, un leño, un tronco, un ceporro , or simply profundamente . The sleeper is likened, variously, to animals, holy figures, and large, immobile objects—none of them especially alert. English is no less resourceful. One may sleep like a log , sleep soundly , or sleep like a baby, a top, a rock, a princess, the dead, or a stone . Here, too, ...

  HORROR Gustar horrores (un horror)  Like an awful lot Marta me gusta horrores I like Martha an awful lot — “La salsa, sin embargo, me gusta horrores.” Antonio Vergara, Comer en el país valencià , 1981. Esp. Tener horror a Dread, fear, have a horror of Le tengo horror al trabajo I dread work — “… sobre todas las cosas, el diablo tiene horror a la sal.” Alberto Cousté, Biografía del Diablo , 1978. Arg. Un horror A sight Margarita es un horror Margaret is a sight — “¡Este niño es un horror, señora!" El Mundo, 20/08/1994. Esp.

   Many websites offer language help under the heading “Word of the Day.” They mean well, but they peddle arcane vocabulary that has little to do with our contemporary needs. I say this despite being a pedant and a lover of precise words. Years ago, in college, I bought a little booklet entitled Ten Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary , which was filled with obscure, archaic terms nobody would ever understand in daily discourse. I see that this practice continues, to my regret, because I endorse building vocabulary in context, not in lists. I always try to expand my vocabulary when reading, especially literature produced by good writers.      Expand your vocabulary by reading and looking up words you encounter, and not by relying on lists like this: Fortuitous Vilipend Nefarious Rancor Mellifluous Verdigris Slopulation