Peter Weibel - The Big Red Book of Spanish Idioms

THE

BIG RED

BOOK OF

SPANISH IDIOMS

Also available:

Gordon & Stillman/The Big Red Book of Spanish Verbs

Gordon & Stillman/The Red Pocket Book of Spanish Verbs

THE

BIG RED

BOOK OF

SPANISH IDIOMS

12,000

SPANISH AND ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS

Peter Weibel

McGraw-Hill

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ISBN: 9780-07-144261-9
MHID: 0-07-144261-8

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Contents

Acknowledgments

I wish to convey my special thanks to Kim, my wife, and Ron Nagel. Their help and support made it possible to finish this project.

My appreciation also goes to Christopher Brown, the editor of this book, for his advice and suggestions. Last but not least, I would like to thank Susan R. Moore for her meticulous review of the book.

Introduction

In the early 1970s I went on vacation to Galicia, Spain. On the thirty-four hour train journey from Bern, Switzerland, to La Corua I got into conversation with a Spaniard. He was very knowledgeable about Spanish literature and recommended to me the writings of Cela; this was the first time that I had heard of this author.

Many years later, in late 1989, a headline in the arts pages of a newspaper caught my attention: The Nobel Prize for Literature goes to Camilo Jos Cela. This prompted me, finally, to acquaint myself with his works. Typical of his style is La Colmena, a novel peppered with col-loquial and slang expressions. As I read it, I felt the need for a reference for English speakers that dealt comprehensively with such Spanish terms, so I began to jot down words. From these beginnings I developed this dictionary of commonly used Spanish expressions that are often difficult to find in standard dictionaries. My sources have been as diverse as the expressions themselves: Nobel Prizewinning authors and Juan Prez (the man in the street), professors and students, contemporary and classical literature, dictionaries, movies, and newspapers from across the Spanish-speaking world.

The Big Red Book of Spanish Idioms is a comprehensive reference designed to open up the world of idiomatic Spanish to English-speaking learners, including students, travelers, and language-lovers, who have an intermediate or advanced level of understanding of Spanish. The dictionary contains a broad collection of over 4,000 commonly used idiomatic and colloquial expressions in Spanish and almost 8,000 English translations. Particular care has been taken to match like with like, so that Spanish idioms are matched with idiomatic English expressions of a similar tone or register. This feature also makes the dictionary a particularly helpful reference for Spanish-speaking learners of English.

Using the Dictionary

1. LOCATION OF A SPANISH EXPRESSION

To look up a particular Spanish phrase or expression in order to find its English equivalent, turn to the main Spanish-English dictionary. Each expression is listed under one particular Spanish headword, and the headwords appear in alphabetical order, though initial articles (el, la, el/la, las, los) are not alphabetized. The idiomatic expressions (preceded by ) are listed below the headword:

To allow for useful groupings by sense, the idiomatic expressions are not necessarily listed in alphabetical order.