Spanish Word of the Day: año bisiesto

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Sam Wilson

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Jul 13, 2020, 7:33:57 AM7/13/20
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LiCR,

año 📢 - year
año bisiesto 📢 - leap year
año secular 📢 - century year (ends in '00', e.g. 1800, 1900, 2000)


año bisiesto

leap year


año

MASCULINE NOUN
1.  (= periodo de tiempo) year
el año pasado last year
el año próximo, el año que viene next year
el año entrante the coming year
el año antepasado the year before last
esperamos años y años we waited years and years
cinco toneladas al año five tons a year
al año de casado a year after his marriage ⧫ after he had been married a year
el año 66 después de Cristo 66 A.D.
en el año 1980 in 1980
en los años 60 in the sixties
en estos últimos años in recent years
hace años, años ha years ago
los 40 años, los años difíciles or negros (Spain) the Franco years (1936-75)
▪ idiom: estar de buen año to look well-fed
▪ idiom: el año de la nana or pera or polca the year dot ⧫ way back
tenemos esta lavadora desde el año de la nana or de la pera we’ve had this washing machine since the year dot
proverb: dentro de cien años, todos calvos we all die in the end

  • Mañana es 29 de febrero porque este es un año bisiesto.
    Tomorrow is the 29th of February because this is a leap year.

  • El año 2020 es un año bisiesto porque tiene 366 días.
    The year 2020 is a leap year because it has 366 days.

  • Año bisiesto es el divisible entre 4, salvo que sea año secular -último de cada siglo, terminado en «00»-, en cuyo caso también ha de ser divisible entre 400.

    [in programming logic]:

        if (year is not divisible by 4) then (it is a common year)
        else if (year is not divisible by 100) then (it is a leap year)
        else if (year is not divisible by 400) then (it is a common year)
        else (it is a leap year)  

My favorite year tracker:

image.png

This is the Aztec Sun Stone.  It is over 3.5 meters in diameter and about 1 meter thick, weighing in at 24,590 kg.  Shortly after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire 500 years ago it was buried in the Zócalo (main square) of what is now Mexico City.  It was (re-)discovered 250 years later in 1790 during repairs on the main cathedral.  About 50 years after the conquest, the Archbishop of Mexico ordered it covered up so the memory of the ancient sacrifices would be lost.  And it was... until in the late 1700's when the then current viceroy of "New Spain" initiated some urban reforms including new streets and drains.  They uncovered the Aztec Sun Stone afresh and after a bit of debate it was decided that it should be preserved rather than be reburied because of its pagan origins.  It now rests in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, where I saw it as a little kid. I think my parents bought a colorful Aztec calendar jigsaw puzzle from the museum store from which I still recall the colorful pictures of Aztec gods that you can kind of make out on the calendar's inner circle -- they were easy to pick out from a gazillion jigsaw pieces:

aztec1.png   aztec2.png    aztec3.png    aztec4.png    aztec5.png    aztec7.png    aztec6.png

--
Sam 

Christopher Howard

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Jul 13, 2020, 8:05:51 AM7/13/20
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Año económico – fiscal year

Tené cuidado de no confundir la palabra año con ano ha, ha, ha

 

This is the Aztec Sun Stone.  It is over 3.5 meters in diameter and about 1 meter thick, weighing in at 24,590 kg.  Shortly after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire 500 years ago it was buried in the Zócalo (main square) of what is now Mexico City.  It was (re-)discovered 250 years later in 1790 during repairs on the main cathedral.  About 50 years after the conquest, the Archbishop of Mexico ordered it covered up so the memory of the ancient sacrifices would be lost.  And it was... until in the late 1700's when the then current viceroy of "New Spain" initiated some urban reforms including new streets and drains.  They uncovered the Aztec Sun Stone afresh and after a bit of debate it was decided that it should be preserved rather than be reburied because of its pagan origins.  It now rests in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, where I saw it as a little kid. I think my parents bought a colorful Aztec calendar jigsaw puzzle from the museum store from which I still recall the colorful pictures of Aztec gods that you can kind of make out on the calendar's inner circle -- they were easy to pick out from a gazillion jigsaw pieces:

 

                       

 

--

Sam 

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Gene French

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Jul 13, 2020, 9:18:51 AM7/13/20
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Stoned again sam....????


Don Hickman

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Jul 13, 2020, 9:27:20 AM7/13/20
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Tené??  Vos.  I hate vos.  Why do Ticos use it?  I was here for a few years and could not figure out why so many signs had grammatical errors.  I even asked a clerk at Monge one day why the sign for Coco Cola said "Destapá" instead of "Destapa."  She didn't know!  Neither did I.  Then one day while looking for something else in a Spanish grammar book, I came across vos.  An entirely new world that I had never heard of before.  But, since I have gone more than 50 years without knowing it, I'm not going to bother to learn it beyond knowing it when I see it.

Don


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Sam Wilson

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Jul 13, 2020, 10:02:24 AM7/13/20
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Gene,

¿Apedreado?  Absolutamente fosilizado, amigo...  jajaja.  I'll have you know that big stone was dragged by 1000's of slaves a long way from 1 of 2 volcanoes to get it to where it pleased the Aztec king, Montezuma the Younger.  Unfortunately, he never became the Elder because the conquistador Hernán Cortés and his men quickly took him out when they attacked Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan -- the largest city in pre-Columbian Americas.  Now all that remains of Tenochtitlan are the floating gardens of Xochimilco -- sort of a Mexican version of Venice with canal rides, etc. -- a very beautiful flowery place the last time I was there.  Up to that point Montezuma the Younger had grown the Aztec empire to be the largest it ever was to be. R.I.P. Montezuma the Younger, may your vast hidden treasure never be found (unless I stumble across it 1st!)  ;-)

--
Sam

Gene French

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Jul 13, 2020, 10:33:03 AM7/13/20
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DONT SAY SLAVES...
POLITICALLY INCORRECT...
NOW THE FORCES THAT BE WILL WANT TO DESTROY THE STONE BECAUSE OF NEGATIVE CONNOTATIONS....ERASE IT FROM HISTORY ..
havent my posts taught you anything sam???
🤣🤣🤣🤣

Christopher Howard

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Jul 13, 2020, 11:59:56 AM7/13/20
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Hola Don,

 

Vos is used frequently in Nicaragua, Colombia, Uruguay and Argentina instead of tú in many cases. Really used a lot in Antioquia (Medellín and the coffee triangle). ¿Entendés parce?

Don Hickman

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Jul 13, 2020, 2:09:17 PM7/13/20
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Yep.  I understand and still have no use for it.  :-)

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