The following list contains some Spanish words and expressions you hardly find in a dictionary but which are definitely part of every day's communication here in Mexico. As a little help I gave you the literal translation. Be creative and guess what it really means (or maybe you know as some of them are quite well-known) and write your ideas down in a comment.
I'll moderate comments again for some time so that you don't copy from each other;-) So don't wonder if your comments don't appear immediately. I'll publish the comments related to this post when I give the solution. All other comments will appear soon after you wrote them.
Now, I hope this will be fun! For you and for me. Here is the list:
- Malinche - Hernán Cortez' lover and translator/ name of a volcano near Puebla
- orejas del elefante - elefant ears
- güey - ox
- agua del calcetin - water of the sock
- una fiesta de tornillos - a party of screws
- pinche - scullion
- pendejo - pubic hair
- cabrón - billy goat
- hacer una chaqueta - make a jacket
- mordida - bite
10 comments:
Since I have so much free time now, while learning for my oral exam (yeah, right ;-)), I decided (well... Christian talked me into it...) to participate in this Vocabulary Test. So here are my guesses:
1. Malinche - wife (instant inspiration from the words "lover" and "volcano" ;-))
2. orejas del elefante - some sort of ear protection, in Germany known as "Mickymäuse" (added later: now that I found out about the words in this Vocabulary Test, this might just as well be the term for a woman's "outstanding character")
3. güey - maybe used like the english word "guy" when talking to or about someone, similar to buddy or dude
4. agua del calcetin - must be some hard liquor. since we're talking about mexico here, i would say tequilla
5. una fiesta de tornillos - some party that involves dancing
6. pinche - a word that good old drugged up Ozzy Osbourne would use pretty frequently if he was Mexican!! ("Bubbles! Oh come on Sharon! I'm fucking Ozzy Osbourne, I'm the Prince of fucking Darkness. Evil! Evil! What's fucking evil about a shitload of bubbles!?")
7. pendejo - stupid person (can i say "asshole" on tv?)
8. cabrón - pretty much the same as 7!?
9. hacer una chaqueta - I looked up a few terms that describe what I think this means. Here's what I came up with:
- beat the meat
- choke the chicken
- burp the worm
- shake hands with the cyclops
- slap the purple headed yogurt pistol (I like that one :-))
- whip the weasel
Now that I think about it... You seem to have a - well... - interesting time in Mexico, considering what you call "part of every day's communication"... 8-)
10. mordida - money to bribe someone
That was fun! :-) I hope, I'm not the only one, who participated. Don't wait too long with the results... I'm curious!
You made quite some points, Michael. And some very nice guesses, too;-) But before I can give the solution you have to convince some more to have a trial.
For everybody else: Have a trial! It's not that difficult as Michael demonstrated.
Moinsen! hab da au so meine theorien...
1= schwuchtel
2= Riesen-Rechter-und-Linker-Mops
3= Debb im debbeverein
4= ???
5= Debbeverein
6= ordentlcih eine reinhauen
7= Schamhaarfrisur
8= Zicke
9= sich aus etwas rausreden
10= Schimpfwort
May I give a little hint? Neither are all of those swearwords nor are they all related to sex;-)
But some are!?
Yes, you are right. But maybe I should already explain that most Mexicans like to use a very strong kind of language when they talk among friends.
And another thing: they like words and sentences which have a double meaning (where the second meaning is a "sexual" one in most cases). Sometimes that can be quite annoying. You say something and you think it is a very normal sentence. Then it happens quite often that a Mexican changes the sentence slightly and everybody starts laughing. Except for yourself because you still think that's a normal sentence. If they are nice they explain to you afterwards which is the double meaning of that (e.g. hacer una chaqueta).
Well, in the presence of some people you can't even use the word for any object that only distantly looks like a cylinder...
Some nice guesses, "Mr. Anonymos" (I guess that's Ziert)! But maybe just guessing is not enough;-)
I really tried to persuade many people to participate in your test (no names here yet... will publish names in case you guys all lied to me ;-)), but mostly the answer was: so much stuff to learn, exams to come... stuff like that. So I suggest you hold the answers back another two weeks or so (but continue blogging anyway *g*). Until then I will continue bugging people (I'm actually pretty good at that!). Hard time for me, because I'm a really curious person!
And to everyone who reads this: keep your fingers crossed for me, I've got my final oral exams upcoming next Monday and Thursday...
Michael
Oh, BTW: Mr. Anonymous should in fact be Ziert, because he's the only one who took the test right after I told him to :-))
You have become quite demanding, Michael! It hasn't passed even a week since the last post and you ask me to keep blogging. Well, I will do so anyway although I'm very busy at the moment. I will have to present part of my project next week or the week after depending on when all the "bosses" will have time.
Good luck for your oral exams. I'll think of you on Monday and Thursday.
Nice guesses, Fabian!
Just an extra hint because it seems to be misleading: "lover" can apply to both men and women. In this case (Malinche) it was a woman. So please no more answers like "gay" for No. 1!
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