Skip directly to content

April 2008

¡Feliz Pascua de Resurrección! (4/23/08)

This is a little late, but I found it when I was looking for information about Passover in Spanish.

Thanks to Spanish.about.com

¡Feliz Pascua de Resurrección!

Sunday March 23, 2008

The Spanish word for Easter, Pascua (usually, but not always, capitalized), is interesting for the fact that it doesn't always refer to the Christian holy day commemorating the Resurrection of Christ. As a word derived from the Hebrew pesah, it originally referred to the Jewish Passover, a commemoration of the exodus from Egypt - and still does. Over the centuries, it came to refer to various religious festival days in general, and thus can refer to as well to Easter, Christmas, Epiphany (the appearance of the Magi, traditionally celebrated January 6) and Pentecost (commemorating the dramatic appearance of the Holy Spirit to the early Christians, a day observed seven Sundays after Easter).

The word can stand alone to mean any one of those days when the context makes its meaning clear. Often, however, the term Pascua judía is used to refer to the Passover, and Pascua de Resurreción to refer to Easter.

In much of the Spanish-speaking world, Easter can surpasses Christmas as a time of celebration and religious observance.

Txting in Spanish (4/16/08)

Thanks to Spanish.about.com

Should you want to text (txt) message in Spanish - here's part of a long list that might be helpful to you.

"One way of overcoming some of the phone's limitations is the use of abbreviations and word or symbol substitutions to get the message across in fewer keystrokes. In Spanish, many of the shorter words used are phonetic usages, such as q or for que or qué (the name of the letter is pronounced the same as the word) and the elimination of the letter h, which is silent. Some of the cell phone words are also carryovers from computer chat conventions, such as the use of ":)" to indicate happiness. A few anglicisms are also common among the young."

100pre - siempre - always (100 is 'cien')
a10 - adiós - goodbye (10 is 'diez')
a2 - adiós - goodbye  (2 is  'dos')
ac - hace - (form of hacer)
aki - aquí - here
amr - amor - love
asias - gracias - thanks
b - bien - well, good
bb - bebé - baby
bbr - bbr - to drink
bs, bss - besos - kisses
bye - adiós - goodbye
b7s - besitos - kisses (7 is 'siete')
KO - estoy muerto - I'm in big trouble
zzz - dormir - sleeping
+ - más - more
:) - feliz, alegre - happy
:( - triste - sad
+o- - más o menos - more or less
- - menos - less
:p - sacar lengua - tongue sticking out

THX :-))

Tags: 

Nomophobia (4/9/08)

Thanks to Omniglot

My newest favorite English word! And I'm afraid I might be turning into one.

Nomophobia

Today's word, nomophobia, is a recent coinage that means the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. It's a contraction of "no mobile phobia".

Something like half the mobile phone users in the UK might suffer from this condition, according to a recent survey undertaken by the Post Office. A lot people apparently feel anxious if their phone out of charge or credit, if they lose their phone or if they can't get a signal.

Are you a nomophobic?

Tags: 

It's raining cats and dogs (4/2/08)

I just found this wonderful website. It takes me back to the early days of the web when people with a passion for something obscure finally discovered an outlet. Visit Simon Ager's site and blog.

Thanks to Omniglot

It's raining cats and dogs (This is finally a relevant expression!)

Está lloviendo a cántaros (jugs) / a cubos (buckets) / a chuzos (pikes) / a mares (seas) / a torrentes (torrents)

Estan lloviendo hasta maridos / It's even raining husbands.

Il pleut des grenouilles (frogs) / des cordes (ropes) / des hallebardes (halberds) / des clous (nails) / à seaux (buckets) / comme vache qui pisse  (like a pissing cow)

(Click here to see expressions in many other languages.)

 

There is also a link to another wonderful page discussing the origin of the English phrase.

 

Please call 919.933.0398 or contact us for more information.