LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

I have said this before, but it bears repeating: you would not believe how many speakers of both English and Spanish flatly deny, to my face, that an expression or idiom I have used even exists. At such moments, I paraphrase Ortega y Gasset: the horizon of our language is not the horizon of language. Native speakers invariably assume that if an expression is unfamiliar to them, then it cannot possibly belong to the language. Full stop. This is precisely why I insist on citations—real citations, in print—that demonstrate an idiom’s validated existence. A good example is the vintage Spanish saying “no es nada lo del ojo, y lo llevaba en la mano.” It means Nothing to worry about; it’s small potatoes, no big deal. Amando de Miguel recounts its origin: “El toro se llamaba, premonitoriamente, Barrabás, el cual espetó una cornada en el ojo del pobre matador. Acudieron los peones al quite y el maestro, para darles ánimos, les decía: No es nada, no es nada lo del ojo. Para demostrarlo, recog...