Robert Fromont

Stranger in an Even Stranger Land

Nothing to write home about

English unintentionally invades

Sunday, 23 May 2010 - 1:05AM

English borrowings in Spanish are not new, and are more and more common.

But some of them are puzzlingly far from their original English meanings.

"Touch and go", for example, appears to refer to a quick fling or a one-night stand, rather than something being on the ragged edge of viability. "Say no more" also has drifted for the English sense that the message has been conveyed and it's not necessary to elucidate further.  In Spanish it seems to mean something more akin to "I rest my case" or "I have nothing more to add".  This, at least, seems to arise directly from a Charly García song of the same name (although the song doesn't contain the phrase at all).

These, I guess, arise from inventing a meaning from a literal translation of the saying, but even stranger is the use of "handy" for "walkie-talkie" - a usage that I don't think ever existed in English, nor one that has a compelling literal-maltranslation story to explain it.

Curiouser and curiouser.