Nuevas Palabras
This month, Oxford University Press is publishing a revised edition of the Oxford Spanish Dictionary. Below, the editor, Nicholas Rollin, discusses some of the interesting new words and meanings to be included in this excellent, updated bilingual dictionary:
England gave soccer to the world, but many of the best players come from Latin America. Here as in other parts of the world, it is taken very seriously and the region is a rich source of galácticos (super stars).
To the uninitiated albiceleste may not have sporting connotations. Its basic meaning is white and blue (albi = white + celeste = light blue), but in soccer it is the term used to describe the mighty Argentinian national side, one of the sides to beat in any international tournament and Brazil's great rivals in Latin American soccer. It comes from the white and pale blue of the Argentinian national flag and is used adjectivally to describe the team or the jersey and as a noun for the team and the players. A similar usage is rojiblanco (from rojo = red and blanco = white), which is used to describe any team with a red and white strip, and, on a national level, the Peruvian national side, again deriving from the colours of the national flag.
But life isn't all beer and skittles (no es todo jauja). The Spanish property scene is, if anything, bleaker than what we are experiencing in the UK. From boom to bust, it is referred to as el ladrillo, which is the usual word for 'brick'. Meanwhile, as in other parts of Europe, thousands of immigrants arrive as best they can, hoping to make a new life in the old continent. Many arrive by sea in open boats. Those arriving from Morocco come in pateras, while those making it to the Canary Islands come in cayucos, possibly to engage in top manta (illegal trade, especially in pirated CDs, etc). Immigrants from Latin America are often referred to in the Spanish press as latinos, in much the same way that they are referred to in the United States. Still on the subject of trade and industry, in the Andean highlands, many farmers are benefiting from comercio justo (fair trade) with Europe and elsewhere, while larger-scale producers are making use of a TLC (Tratado de Libre Comercio or free-trade agreement) with the US. But in Spain there is also a fear of deslocalización, the relocation of industry to parts of the world with low-cost labour forces.
In the social sphere, the phenomenon of mobbing and acoso (bullying) gets a lot of media attention, as does mobbing inmobiliario (the harassment of low-rent tenants in order to clear a building for redevelopment), and as elsewhere an acuerdo prematrimonial (prenuptial agreement) is seen by some as advisable (especially asesores financieros or financial advisers), while others become a pareja de hecho (a de facto couple, who acquire legal rights) without further ado. But if you're shopping on the internet, you may need to state your civilidad (your civil title, Mr, Mrs, Ms) and if you get fed up with that, you can darte de baja (unsubscribe).
And so it goes on, with new words and terms from telephony (roaming, broadband, texting), to finance (credit crunch, sub-prime, dollar-cost-averaging), to medicine (stent, angioplasty, EHIC), to general culture (see the note on El Cid): there is a huge amount of new material in the fourth edition of the Oxford Spanish Dictionary. How did we find it? Much comes from program-driven web searches for new terminology. Other important improvements come from routine editorial procedures for checking consistency and coverage. A good example of the results of these procedures is the Spanish expression de toda la vida. According to context it can mean 'lifelong', for example with amigo, or 'standard, unexceptional' for example with a consumer product like a cell phone. Having found it, we then checked against the evidence of usage using our Spanish corpus, which in turn enabled the dictionary entry to be revised.
All the Spanish words mentioned in bold and italics are either new entries or have new meanings in the new edition of the Oxford Spanish Dictionary.
Nicholas Rollin
08/05/08
 Printer friendly version
|
