Spanish Word of the Day: espantapájaros

[Sam Wilson]

LiCR,

espanto (n) 📢 - a fright or ghost (like susto or fantasma)

espantapájaros (n) 📢 - scarecrow (also, just: espantajo)

espantamoscas (n) 📢 - fly swatter

espantar (v) 📢 - to frighten

espanto

MASCULINE NOUN

1.  (= susto) fright see also curado ADJECTIVE

2.  (= amenaza) threat ⧫ menace

3.  (Latin America) (= fantasma) ghost

4.  (informal) (para exagerar)

¡qué espanto! how awful!

hace un frío de espanto it’s terribly cold

es un coche de espanto it’s a fabulous or tremendous car (informal)

espantapájaros

INVARIABLE MASCULINE NOUN

scarecrow

espantamoscas

INVARIABLE MASCULINE NOUN

fly swatter

espantar

TRANSITIVE VERB

1.  (= asustar)

(gen) to frighten ⧫ scare

(haciendo huir) to frighten off or away ⧫ scare off or away

el ruido espantó a las reses the noise frightened or scared the cattle

espantó a los perros con una escoba she frightened the dogs off or away with a broom

2.  (= horrorizar) to horrify ⧫ appall

le espantaba la idea de tener que ir solo he was horrified or appalled at the thought of having to go on his own

Verb conjugations for espantar

Presentyo espantotú espantasUd./él/ella espantanosotros, -as espantamosvosotros, -as espantáisUds./ellos/ellas espantanFutureyo espantarétú espantarásUd./él/ella espantaránosotros, -as espantaremosvosotros, -as espantaréisUds./ellos/ellas espantaránPreteriteyo espantétú espantasteUd./él/ella espantónosotros, -as espantamosvosotros, -as espantasteisUds./ellos/ellas espantaronImperfectyo espantabatú espantabasUd./él/ella espantabanosotros, -as espantábamosvosotros, -as espantabaisUds./ellos/ellas espantaban

• El espantapájaros tenía cerebro, solo tenía dos días y era ingenuo.
  The Scarecrow did have a brain, he was only two days old and naïve.
  
  
• Los discípulos pensaron equivocadamente que habían visto a un espanto.
  The disciples mistakenly thought that they had seen a ghost.
  
  
• No nos dejemos espantar o paralizar por este maldito virus.
  Let's not be scared or paralyzed by this damn virus.
  

In Costa Rica we seem to use susto, asustar, and fantasma more than espanto and espantar.  Also you are more likely to see little baggies or bottles of water hanging by a door to scare away the flies than you are a flyswatter.  Believe me, I have asked multiple times at sodas how they think that works, and inevitably, I get a guess answer that the fly sees itself in the hanging baggie of water and gets scared so it flies away or doesn't come inside.

    

 

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Sam

[Don Hickman]

Love compound words!  Made from 3rd person singular verb and a plural noun.  Once when I was teaching a class of gringos here about them, I was giving examples and said a dishwasher was a lavaplatos.  A woman in the class who always acted as though she knew everything (I never figured out why she was in the class) said I was wrong.  That a dishwasher was a lavaplatadora.  Nothing I said would convince her.  She said, "Look.  A dryer is a secadora.  A washing machine is a lavadora so a dishwasher is a lavaplatadora.". I couldn't fault her logic.

Don

who gave up teaching gringos anything

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[Christopher Howard]

Hola Compadritos,

 

Matamoscas is also fly swatter and more widely used.

…

Atrapamoscas is a Venus flytrap

 

Speaking of flies…….Proverb : En boca cerrada no entran moscas: Loose lips sink ships …silence is golden….a tico versión “más vale tonto callado que tonto hablando”

    

 

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Sam

[Joe Harrison]

Hey, Don.  Yeah, Gringoes are intractably difficult to teach.  That's why I teach Ticos.  Much more pliable.  They don't necessarily learn much of anything, but they do act like they're paying attention and absorbing and they never give you any crap.  Nunca ellos ponen un desafío.  Pura Vida!!!!!

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[Christopher Howard]

Nunca poner peros

    

 

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Sam

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[Joe Harrison]

Nunca poner peros:  meaning They never find faults/ they never raise objections???  True, they don't.

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[RonCR]

Ticos will take advantage of anything if it's free. Why is it that not only Ticos, but almost all Latinos love free stuff? That is why they tend to be socialists and why the Democratic Party is so set on bringing them into the U.S.. 

I learned that nothing is free, that somebody his to pay for it, if not with money then with their time. Do you suppose that the Latino attitude comes from living in the tropics where fruit grows on trees? 

Stefan Molyneux said that it's because Latinos have a low average I.Q., just slightly higher than blacks. He was only reporting a widely publicized study "The Bell Curve", but it was enough to get him kicked off YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. 

One of the reasons I moved to Costa Rica was for the freedom. Freedom from laws and regulations. But there will soon be no more places to go. 

Ironically I have known many gringos who moved here and then soon left for lack of government "protection" after they were the victims of  a home invasion or lost their life savings to some con man. Many were lured here by the promise of free quality health care. That is no joke. So then why didn't they stay here? Health care is still free. Apparently low I.Q., if that is the reason, is not limited to Latinos.

I wish you great success in teaching much more pliable Ticos (I can only assume that you don't charge them anything). They say that doing something that you enjoy is it's own reward and I agree completely.

----Original Message----- 

[Sam Wilson]

Ron,

You're a Bible loving guy, right?  Know this one?

Proverbios 17:28

Aun el necio, cuando calla, es tenido por sabio, cuando cierra los labios, por prudente.

That's what Lincoln was referring to...

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.

— Abraham Lincoln

You don't suppose that The Bell Curve drawing heavily upon the research funded by the Pioneer Fund (aka the eugenics fund) had anything to do with its findings?  The Bell Curve Debate is a pretty good read to get a better perspective on things.

Damn it!  There I go feeding the troll again... jejeje.  I guess a little of dear henry has rubbed off on me.  He would say, "be kind to animals, don't eat them."

--

Sam

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[Christopher Howard]

“El ignorante ataca con la boca, el sabio se defiende con el silencio” Albert Einstein

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[RonCR]

Sam,

I this we are in agreement. The I.Q. test was invented by Jews and they only measure the ability to think abstractly. It should be no great surprise that Jews score the higher than any other race when taking these tests. I don't know the author of The Bell Curve but suspect that it was probably a Jew.

Please believe me when I say that I have nothing against Jews. I worked for them my entire life. They always treated me fairly and they made me lots of money. I was even engaged to  Jewess and almost married her. I respect Jews for what they are very good at, which is making money and making up abstract theories. But what they sadly lack is street smarts, or just plain common sense. For this reason they are forced to compensate. For example they invented propaganda. They cannot win people over by persuasion so they do it by using propaganda.

As for Stefan Molyneux, he produced 1000's of YouTube videos for over a decade on all kinds of different subjects. He just happens to have conservative views and this was just an excuse to silence him. They did a purge removing just not him but many other prolific and widely followed conservatives like Max Iqan in Australia because he was criticizing the Australian government's radical lockdown laws.