The English language/vocabulary/verbal phrases

^ the spanish actual adjective is quijotesco (noun quijotería). Curiously though, the adjective in catalan is quixòtic.

Dean wrote: Gerinski wrote: ^ the spanish actual adjective is quijotesco (noun quijotería). Curiously though, the adjective in catalan is quixòtic. Ah, it's less curious then. I presume that the Catalan word is wholly of Catalan derivation and its similarity to the Anglicised form is just consequence of both Catalan and English using the "-ic" suffix to turn a noun into an adjective.

Dean wrote: Do you know of any words commonly used in Spanish that were borrowed into English and then taken back in their Anglicised form?

Dean wrote: I was thinking of words we borrowed directly from Spanish like cargo, ranch and caldera whose English meaning is slightly different from similar English words with the same Latin root. For example caldera is derived from the Latin calderia meaning boiling pot, where we get (by way of a different route) cauldron, we don't use cauldron when we mean "mouth of a volcano" and we don't use caldera when we mean "cooking pot"... So my question would be, did the Spanish use caldera as a geological term before the English stole the word?

I use it all the time. "Hey buddy, got alight?"   

Alit is a popular answer in crossword puzzles when referring to landing.

I see.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - August 15 2014 at 14:31

The Doctor wrote: Really? I've always liked the word pizzazz. It's got pizzazz.

I guess it's just coming from me as a person from a country where the young, immature 8th-graders would make fun of it (in a suggestive way ).

Edited by Dayvenkirq - August 15 2014 at 14:54

The word 'pizzazz' reminds me of another word, 'snazzy'. One time quite a number of years ago now, I told a fellow graduate student her outfit looked snazzy. She was from Germany. English was a second language for her, but she had a very strong command of it. She had a had never heard this word before and asked me about it. I was very much at a loss for words. She wanted to know how it compared to nice, good, beautiful, etc. One of the definitions I looked up just now is "conspicuously or flashily attractive" (www.merriam-webster.com). That's pretty good. I wish I had thought of it at the time. Still it doesn't feel like the definition gets one very far without some actual life experience in using the word. I just know snazzy when I see it.

Her outfit was quite snazzy. —vs.— Her outfit had a lot of pizzazz.

Hmmm...

rogerthat wrote: As somebody who lives in a country where English is only a second language, what I have seen is the way we use English is too functional and literal.  Maybe (some) Indians may have a good command over English from a grammatical point of view but they probably tend to think in their native language first and then translate it into English.  As a result, the English they/we speak is often devoid of idioms or slang and lacks flavour.  What words like pizzazz or snazzy do is to add flavour.  That is one reason I usually avoid English novels written by Indian authors because either their English is bad, really bad or their writing is too laboured and tiresome to read whereas reading British or American authors gives me more insight into how native speakers use the language.

An interesting, prudent perspective.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - August 17 2014 at 03:13