Nienor

So, the Spanish word ‘rompecabezas’ literally means ‘breaksheads’, yet it means jigsaw puzzle. 

What’s more, in English we put together a jigsaw puzzle, or maybe just do one, yet in Spanish they ‘armar’ one, which usually means ‘to arm’, i.e. supply with weapons. 

So, when researching the different words for goose pimples (pimples, bumps, or flesh, anyone?) I came across this on Wikipedia giving the words for them in other languages, and it’s amazing!

‘"Goose skin" is used in German (Gänsehaut), Swedish (gåshud), Danish and Norwegian (gåsehud), Icelandic (gæsahúð), Greek (χήνειο δέρμα), Italian (pelle d'oca), Russian (гусиная кожа), Ukrainian (гусяча шкіра), Polish (gęsia skórka), Czech (husí kůže), Slovak (husia koža), Latvian (zosāda) and Hungarian (libabőr).

In other languages, the "goose" may be replaced by other kinds of poultry. For instance, "hen" is used in Spanish (piel de gallina), Portuguese (pele de galinha), Romanian (piele de găină), French (chair de poule), Catalan (pell de gallina), Slovene (kurja polt) and in Central Italy (ciccia di gallina)and in Northern Italy (pelle d'oca).[7] "Chicken" is used in Dutch (kippenvel), Chinese (雞皮疙瘩, lit. lumps on chicken skin), Finnish (kananliha), Estonian (kananahk), Afrikaans (hoendervleis) and Korean (닭살, daksal). In Hindi/Urdu it is called rongtey khade ho jaana. The equivalent Japanese term, 鳥肌, torihada, translates literally as "bird skin". In Arabic it is called kash'arirah (قشعريرة), while in Hebrew it is called "duck skin" (עור ברווז). In Vietnamese, it is called da gà, which can be translated as "chicken skin", or gai ốc, which can be translated as "snail node".’

SNAIL NODE EVERYONE! 

bisbisar = to mutter

This post was inspired by a sentence from a French penfriend (hello Clea!). Now all the French girls called Clea who have penpals are wondering if this is for them. 

The French expression ‘être une quiche’ means to be really bad or stupid at something. 

For example: ‘je suis une quiche en anglais’ - I’m really bad at English, or ‘elle est une quiche en argot’ - she’s really bad at slang. 

A trip back into French, my first ever foreign language. 

The verb ‘voler’ can mean both ‘to fly’ and ‘to steal’. 

The Spanish for ‘still life’ (the type of art) is ‘naturaleza muerta’, or ‘dead nature’, yet although still life works may feature nature or something dead, they are hardly compulsory. Well done Spanish. 

So, I was just looking at different parts of Africa with my laptop in Spanish, as you do, when I saw ‘Africa austral’ and learnt that ‘austral’ meant ‘southern’. I then had a eureka moment and realised... Australia.

According to Wikipedia, this is ‘not a term directly indicating a specific person, but signifies a person who is perfect in everything; abilities, appearances and backgrounds. Usually spoken by a mother to push her son to do better by comparing to an obscurely perfect character referred to as “umchina.”’ 

There’s even something called ‘umchina syndrome’!

My Spanish teacher uses something very similar to this so much. ‘You should be more like my Year 13s, they’re never as loud...’

In Spanish, the word ‘pegar’ can mean both ‘to stick’ or ‘paste’ and ‘to hit’. Unfortunately, I can’t think of a real life situation where these could be confused*, though I welcome suggestions. 

But, the far more amusing thing is that copy and paste, ‘copiar and pegar’ could mean copy and hit!  

In Spanish the word ‘bocadillo’ means a sandwich, or a snack. It comes from the word ‘boca’ which means ‘mouth’, and the suffix ‘illo’, which makes the word smaller, in size or significance. 

So, bocadillo, sandwich, literally means ‘little mouth’. 

The Chinese word for owl is 猫头鹰 (Māotóuyīng) where 猫 means cat, 头 means head and 鹰 means eagle.

To the Chinese person who came up with that: ‘Have you ever seen a cat or an owl?!’

The Spanish phrase ‘contestar mal’ (literally: to answer badly) actually means to answer back. 

Somehow I think a teacher or parent came up with this.