Posts Tagged: Spanish

  • IMAGE: codpiece on funerary statue. Meaning: The rather mundane word, bracket, has a sexier history than you would expect from something found in a hardware store.

    Not so square bracket

    The rather mundane word, bracket, has a sexier history than you might expect. A word that changes its meaning can be either an example of melioration, where the word takes on a more favorable connotation or deterioration where it takes on a more negative association. So how will we describe the change in the Spanish word, bragueta (from which English has borrowed bracket), which was initially a word for codpiece but became used for the object that holds up a shelf?

  • Sobek, the crocodile god

    Tears for the crocodile

    I have just got back from a trip to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland with my family. While we were there we visited the Australia Zoo at Beerwah. It is, of course, famous as the “home of the Crocodile Hunter”, Steve Irwin. It is a great zoo and now a bit of a memorial for […]

  • Luchador in the ring

    Wrestling with luchador

    I was working at my computer when my son asks me: “Dad, what’s a luchador?” I guessed it was a wrestler. Luchador (a fighter, from Spanish) is a professional Mexican wrestler, and lucha libre (free fighting, from Spanish) is the form of wrestling performed.