Spanish rudeness (and a pun) (was: RE: ...y'know)

Andrew Smith <hobbit@...> wrote:
/snip/
> I started mentally trying to work out how this dialogue would be render=
ed
> in Brithenig but I realise that Brithenig has no slang words for man or
> dude.  What is etymology or history of these Spanish words and why are
> they seen as rude in most circumstances?  (If this can be discussed
> politely on this list).=20
Let's see. The words _marica_, _maric=F3n_, _mariquita_ and other variant=
s
must be from the proper name "Mar=EDa" or similar. When not used as addre=
ssing
terms, they could be translated more or less as English "sissy" or maybe=20
"fag". I asume the female name "Mar=EDa" associates with women and womanh=
ood,
and from then on to womanly mannerisms... I don't know when it began to b=
e
used like that, but it's certainly not slang (not a fashionable word that
will disappear soon, I mean -- it's been around for at least 20 years).
The /ik/ in these words are diminutive or despising, I think. /ik/ is not
used in Argentina for diminutives (I've heard it in Venezuelan soap opera=
s);
we use /it/. _Mariquita_ has both of them. _Maric=F3n_, on the other hand=
,
has both diminutive /ik/ and augmentative /on/! They are obviously deriva=
tions
from _marica_.

As for _g=FCev=F3n_, it's actually a colloquial pronunciation of _huev=F3=
n_,
from _huevo_ "egg" meaning "testicle", plus the augmentative <-=F3n>. Whe=
n
<-=F3n> is applied to a thing, it means "big"; when to a person, it means
"having big ~". So there you have it. It's a rare word here in Argentina,
let alone for addressing people. Curiously the expression _tener huevos=20
para..._ means exactly the same as in English "to have the balls for..."
(or the same sense as in "it takes a lot of balls to..."); it's appreciat=
ive,
tho not polite.

As for slang, maybe Carlos can tell me if a thing I hear here is also
found in Colombia... the use of <re-> as augmentative. In formal words,
as you know, <re-> means repetition, as in French and English (via French=
?).
But in colloquial speech here it means "a lot", "very". It can also
become <requete-> or <recontra->! For example:

        Estoy re-cansado.                       "I'm very tired."
        Se re-mat=F3.                           *"He utterly got killed."
        Se mat=F3 re-est=FApidamente.   "He got killed very stupidly."
        Es un re-tarado.                        "He's a very stupid (one)."

As you see it gets tacked before nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, whate=
ver.
Maybe you can use that too, Andrew. You lose the repetitive use of <re->
(I found French _revenir_ a paradigm of productiveness!) but you have a
new sense. And very productive, I might say. Some people stress it a bit,
as if it were an adverb; some others fully incorporate it into the next
word. There are several puns about words that mean another thing when
you add <re->, like _ba=F1o_ 'bathroom', _reba=F1o_ 'herd', _pollo_ 'chic=
ken',
_repollo_ 'cabbage'. For example, this one:

        A sheep asks another sheep,
        _=BFD=F3nde est=E1 el reba=F1o?_ ("Where is the herd?")
        And the other one says, "I don't know, why?".
        And the first sheep says,
        _=A1Porque me estoy remeando!_ ("Because I'm <re->peeing!")


--Pablo Flores