Re: phonology of borrowed words

On Nov/20/2002, Christophe Grandsire wrote:

> > "Lost bread"?
> Yes. It's called this way because it uses too old bread (hard but not yet
> rotten ;))) ) as basic ingredient. It's a way to save what would otherwise be
> lost :) . The simplest recipe:
[snip]

        Here in Spain (or at least in my house ;-)) we just call it
"torrijas" (hmmm ... /toRIhAs/?). Though I'm afraid I don't know where
it comes from O:-) I suppose it's simply from the verb "torrar"
(/toRAr/), which is a very very strange/archaic way to say "to heat (a
lot)". The adjective "tórrido" (/to'RIdo/), "very hot", comes just from
there. I think I heard some other names for these things derived from
the castillian one, but "torrijas" is quite the standard :-)

        Though I realize that "lost bread" is funnier to explain :-D

PS: as a side idiomatic note, my friends and me use the term "atorrante"
(/AtoRAnte/, "that brings heat", approximately) to denote specially
boring and slow films :-)

--
        Roberto Suarez Soto

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