Bienvenidos a Meri-Go-Round!
Happy Voting Day Peeps! I will be so so so happy to not see Michelle “Satan” Bachman’s face on all of the internet ads anymore… woman, your face may haunt my dreams. Not cool.
But that’s not what I’m writing about tonight. Tonight, I want to spend a bit of time to focus on Dia de los Muertos!
Now, when I think of Day of the Dead (we’re in America people, so I’m going to refer to it in AMERICAN now) I think of the paraphernalia that accompanies it (sidebar- did you know paraphernalia was spelled that way? I had to google it because spellcheck didn’t like “paraphanalia.”… have I never written or typed this word? It’s such a force of a word!)
As I was saying, I think of sugar skulls, colorful altars, and marigolds. So, I decided to slightly detour my morning walk to work past some neighborhood marigolds I know of. It is getting to be a little bit “Day of the Dead Marigolds” unfortunately, but here’s what I got:
Click flower photos to enlarge if you wish!
Now, in honor of dia de los muertos, I thought I would celebrate some of my favorite Spanish words. I really love the Spanish language, even though it threatened to finish me in my quest to minor en Espanol during university. (I’ll apologize in advance for being too lazy to figure out how to put ~ on the letter n…)
Between colorful professors, Madrilenos, my Spanish mama, and the power of the telenovela, here is a composite list of swears, slang, nouns, phrases, blah blah blah.
1. “Jo#$r”- don’t feel comfortable typing this one since it means “F”, but it is the single most expressive swear I have ever met. It feels SO good as it rolls off the tongue, and yet Spaniards use it in a jolly way at times so I don’t feel so guilty about using it (not that that ever stopped me in English curses…) The important part of this one is to put the main emphasis on the first syllable. Gosh, I’m so glad I revived this one, I’ve been neglecting it! (If you do not know this word, just ask and I’d be happy to curse you out! As a learning experience, of course!)
2. “Cono” (with ~) and it’s cousin, “que con~o”- I’m okay with typing this one, but I guess its technically a swear as well. I like the versatility here, as you find in swears in all languages, and that it can mean so very many things. Non Hispanophiles, the second one means “what the F”so don’t use lightly. The prior is more of a general name to call others lovingly (like “B*&#$ in our lexicon, perhaps)… or it can be an exclamation, or however you want to use it. Please don’t feel constrained by my narrow definition!
3. “!Esta lloviendo a cantaros!)- Raining cats and dogs. My Spanish mama taught me this one, and she was so determined that I learn it that it has become one of my favorite expressions to use.
4. “microondas”- microwave. This is just the coolest word, it has a double o for crying out loud. In a Spanish word. Awesome. I like to just repeat this word with alternate pronunciations at times because its so great.
5. “gilipolla”- hmm, I think I need a one act play for this one. Because it took me that and more to figure out what this one meant. Which like “a cantaros” i think is my basis for liking it… The players in this scene are myself and my friend from Madrid Adrian. We are in a plaza in the evening, going out for a copa
-MGR (thats meri go round…)- “blah blah blah boys are annoying i’m in college blah blah talking about myself blah blah”
-A (adrian)- “…but… Rubia… (I must note that at this point, I was not in fact a “rubia.”I had approximately 3 blonde highlights in my Spaniard hairdresser approved maroon hair…) it is sure that you date the gilipolla… hehehe… not a macho man like me”
-MGR- “que cono is a gilipolla?”
-A- “oh, you know… the man with the flowers… he wears the flowers.”
-MGR- “no, i don’t date florists…”
-A- goes on to describe in great detail what I’ve come to deduce is a sort of hippy crossed with a eunuch crossed with a frat boy. I assure him that no, I am just a man hater in general. Equal opportunity man hater!
To this day I”m not positive of the exact meaning, but I don’t think its incredibly complimentary.
6.”Fabiola”- yes, its a name. one of my favorite Spanish words is a name… but come on, try to say this and not fall in love with how it rolls off the tongue. When I finally get my dog, it will be named Fabiola, male or female, so that I can say this name several times a day with meaning.
And if that dog were a boy, with a name like Fabiola, I intuit that the other kids at school might call him “gilipolla.” and then I’d have to go gangster on them.
What are your favorite Spanish words or phrases? Or other languages?
