Idiom: a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words; a commonly used phrase that means more than it says.
The man in my life had run the León Marathon in Guanajuato a day earlier, and I was searching the sports section of a local newspaper for stories about the event. One was titled, “El prietito en el arroz/The dark spot in the rice,” and I thought: What’s that all about? It turns out the phrase means the same thing as our “fly in the ointment,” and the article was describing some pesky incidents that marred the start of the race.
Intrigued, I started looking for other Spanish sayings in books, magazines, movies, and on television. Like so many other things, if you’re not searching for them, you’re not aware they exist, but if you’re alert to the possibilities, they…well, they “come out of the woodwork,” so to speak.
In his fascinating childhood autobiography, “Waiting for Snow in Havana – Confessions of a Cuban Boy,” National Book Award winner Carlos Eire calls razor-sharp rocks dientes de perro (dog’s teeth). That wasn’t hard to figure out, but his references to himself and his mischievous 10-year-old buddies as niños bitongos, which he helpfully explains means “spoiled brats,” required an Internet search when my dictionary failed to list bitongos. The word turned up in numerous websites, generally referring to individuals with less than sterling character.
Want to call somebody a “knucklehead” in Spanish? Try cabeza de chorlito, another phrase defying instant dictionary interpretation, although even a novice Spanish speaker knows cabeza means head. Chorlito, it turns out, derives from the pre-Spanish word txorlia, which refers to a type of bird. I guess it’s fair to say another rough English equivalent would be “birdbrain.” I first noticed this phrase while watching a movie with Spanish subtitles and was pleased to have it at the ready a few days later when….hmmm, best not to get into that.
Some sayings are nearly identical to their English counterparts. For instance, there’s con las manos en la masa, which literally means “with your hands in the dough” and figuratively translates to be “caught in the act.” If you tease someone, you “tomar el pelo,” which literally means to “yank someone’s hair,” sort of like we figuratively “pull someone’s leg.” Then there’s “lobos de una camada,” which are “wolves of a litter.” In English we’d say “birds of a feather.”
“La ropa sucia se lava en casa” means “dirty clothes are washed in the house,” which is pretty close to the English “don’t air your dirty linen in public.” “Empujando margaritas” means “pushing up daisies,” and if you were, you wouldn’t be reading this!
“Como agua” translates to “like water” but sometimes takes on a figurative meaning. “Se le va el dinero como agua” means someone is spending money like water, and “se bebió medio litro de mezcal como agua” tells you someone has glugged down half a liter of mezcal as if it were water.
Mexican “telenovelas” (“soap operas”) are a veritable treasure trove of pithy remarks. Here’s one: “Ahora es cuando, chili verde, le has de dar sabor al caldo.” Word for word, this says, “Now is when, green chile, you have to give flavor to the soup.” But in the angst-ridden world of daytime television, this means, “It’s time to act resolutely,” which usually ushers in a scene where someone gets shot, beaten, or severely tongue-lashed.
Here’s another: “Ah qué la recién casada.” A strict translation sounds quite harmless, “Ah…like the newly-married.” But it’s more than that on a telenovela. While the heroine furrows her brow and clutches a handkerchief, she’s using these words to remonstrate about someone who treated her badly or abused their friendship. I still wasn’t getting it until a Mexican friend explained that while all is usually well during the romance stage, things sometimes go downhill once the nuptial knot is tied. Ah…..
Another one I love is “mover la sin hueso.” Initially, the translation –”to move without bones,” puzzled me. But after I heard it a few more times on Television, I realized it means “jabbering,” which does make sense — given that a tongue doesn’t have any bones.
Yet another telenovela matriarch admonishes her grown children regularly by saying, “lo que se mama no se olvida,” “what mama knows you don’t forget.” But, says a Zihua acquaintance of mine, the underlying meaning is that what you learn as a child influences your conduct throughout your lifetime.
Here’s a quaint way of telling someone you’d like to enjoy their company again: “Muchas gracias por la flor, mañana vengo por la maceta.” The literal meaning of the words is, “Thank you for the flower, tomorrow I’ll come back for the flowerpot.”
While reading a romance novel in the Mexican magazine Vanidades (to improve my comprehension of written Spanish, of course), I came across this saying, “No llores, chupa tu mango.” What? “Don’t cry, suck your mango.” What the speaker is really saying is to look for a solution to your problems. Not far removed from the English “suck it up.”
This one came from an ad that popped up on Yahoo’s Mexican website: “ahorrando la sopa del perico.” Literally, it means “saving the parakeet’s food,” but in context, it was telling the reader that here were ways to economize on indispensable purchases.
And if you’re having one of those days where everything you do makes you wish you’d never bothered to get out of bed, try “no hay cuero sin rasgones.” That means “you can’t have a leather hide without a few rips.” In other words, nothing’s perfect.
Ok, ok. “Ese arroz ya se coció.” Those words mean “this rice is already cooked.” You get the picture: Enough already! We’re done with this subject.
