Cathy from San Antonio, Texas, notes that many Spanish words come from the Nahuatl language, including the words for “tomato,” “sweet potato,” and “avocado,” which are tomate, camote, and aguacate, respectively. The Nahuatl élotl, meaning “a cob of tender corn,” is the source of the Spanish word elote, which means “corn,” and appears in menos burros, más elotes. This playful Spanish dicho means “fewer donkeys, more corn,” and is said when someone at the dinner table refuses a helping of food, leaving more for everyone else. Words in English that ultimately come from Nahuatl include chocolate, cocoa, jicama, zapote, tamales, chili, and chilaquiles. Another Spanish word from Nahuatl is mecate, which means “rope,” and is part of the idiom cada chango en su mecate — literally, “every monkey on his rope,” meaning “to each his own.” This is part of a complete episode.
Why do some Spanish speakers use adaptations of certain English terms when there’s already a perfectly good word for the same thing in Spanish? Sometimes the result is called “Spanglish.” For example, Spanish cuentas means “bills,”...
We’ve previously discussed when pigs fly and other idioms expressing profound skepticism that something will occur. That prompted an email from Guillermo in Tucson, Arizona, who shared a Spanish phrase that conveys a similar idea: cuando la...
Subscribe to the fantastic A Way with Words newsletter!
Martha and Grant send occasional messages with language headlines, event announcements, linguistic tidbits, and episode reminders. It’s a great way to stay in touch with what’s happening with the show.
