David from Black Mountain, North Carolina, is fond of the Spanish term that originally meant “someone who shares the same name as another person” (which is one of the meanings of “namesake” in English) and has expanded to mean “someone with whom you have an emotional kinship or fellow-feeling”: tocayo or tocaya. A word with a similar meaning in parts of Latin America is cuate, which originally meant “a fraternal twin.” Along with its more familiar forms cuatito and cuatita, cuate has expanded to connote a kind of “spiritual twin.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Tocayo/a, Cuate, and Cuatito/a”
Welcome to A Way with Words.
Hello, Grant. It’s David Lamott calling from Black Mountain, North Carolina.
What’s on your mind?
So I was listening to an episode that y’all did recently where you encountered a Spanish phrase that translates into English as a crocodile in your pocket to describe somebody who’s stingy because their wallet’s in there with the crocodile.
Right.
And I was really wonderfully amused by that. And it got me to thinking about my favorite word in Spanish, which is tokayo, T-O-C-A-Y-O. Tokayo means one who shares my name. So anybody who has the same first name as you is your tokayo or tokaya in the feminine form.
And I got to thinking about the fact that that doesn’t translate into English. It’s such a charming word. It’s like you use it kind of like you’d use homeboy, like even if you met somebody for the first time, if you’re from the same town, then you have this little thing in common. And so it’s just a little celebration of that. It’s an expression of soft kinship.
And I kind of love the word, but it doesn’t exist in English. And I got to thinking about words that don’t translate. And that just got me fascinated. I wondered if y’all had any other thoughts on tokayo or on words that don’t translate.
I do love the word tokayo. And I learned it from a Spanish speaker whose name is, guess what? Marta. Oh, Marta, yeah, of course. Yeah, I agree with you. There is something really lovely about that connection, and we always, whenever we see each other, you know, we say, hey, tocaya, and I don’t know, it sort of separates you out from everybody else and connects you to that one person. I really enjoy that term.
It reminds me of another Spanish word. Like tocayo has gone beyond the literal meaning to a figurative meaning. So takayo could be used for somebody who doesn’t share your name, but they share your spirit or your outlook on life, or you kind of have an emotional kinship with them.
And the Spanish word cuate, C-U-A-T-E, and it’s used originally for a non-identical twin, a fraternal twin in places like Mexico, Guatemala, and Venezuela. Or you might call somebody a cuatito or cuatita. That’s the more familiar form.
But it’s also used, again, for somebody like Tokayo or Tokaya, somebody who is your twin in spirit, your twin in outlook on life, your twin in interests, or your twin in your goals or your perspective, that sort of thing. And I think that that’s, for me, Kwaite and Tokayo, that’s what they’re doing that makes them so compelling as words. It’s not just that they’re literal uses, it’s they’re figurative uses.
Yeah, and I’m trying to think of an English equivalent, and I can’t really.
No, it takes several words to explain it. We have a lot of listeners around the world who speak a huge number of languages, and people who are very creative at coming up with their own words or their own expressions. So we’d love to hear from everyone.
What’s a word that you already know or an expression you already know that brings across the idea of Tokayo, someone who not just shares your name, but shares your spirit in kinship. They’re like you in outlook, identity, and feeling.
We’d love to hear it. Let us know, 877-929-9673, or tell us on Twitter @wayword.
David, we’ll see what we get.
All right. I appreciate your hospitality. Nice to talk with you all in these kwates.
All right. Adios.
Ciao.
Adios.
That number again is 877-929-9673.
