Word of the day: chaparral

The word of the day is chaparral:

1. a dense growth of shrubs or small trees.

1850, Amer.Eng., from Sp. chaparro "evergreen oak," perhaps from Basque txapar.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chaparral)

"In a remote corner of Northern California, on a steep slope of knotty oaks, sulfur and steam rise in plumes from Wilbur Hot Springs...

"The view's nice; the chaparral smells great."

 - Rinku Patel, "Bugged", The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016

Word of the day: bastinado

The word of the day is bastinado:

1. a mode of punishment consisting of blows with a stick on the soles of the feet or on the buttocks.
2. a blow or a beating with a stick, cudgel, etc.
3. a stick or cudgel.

1570s, from Sp. bastonada "a beating, cudgeling," from baston "stick," from L.L. bastum (see baton).

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bastinado)

"De Long noted that after a week of warm weather, everyone was suddenly 'freezing all the time."  Some used sticks to beat their feet 'as a bastinado,' to bring back their circulation.  This dubious technique, 'though making our feet tingle, hardly added to our comfort.'"

 - Hampton Sides, In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette

Word of the day: pistolero

The word of the day is pistolero:

1. a member of an armed band of roving mounted bandits.
2. a gunman or hired killer.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pistolero)

"One account describes how a single shipment of 7,771 bars left the city in 1549, four years after the lode's discovery.  Each bar was about 99 percent silver and weighed more than eighty pounds...  Each llama could carry only three or four bars...  The shipment required more than two thousand of the beasts.  They were watched by more than a thousand Indian guards who in turn were watched by squads of Spanish pistoleros."

 - Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Word of the day: olla

The word of the day is olla:

—noun Spanish.

1. a pot, especially an earthen pot for holding water, cooking, etc.
2. a stew.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/olla) 

"At the bottom of the box was something heavy which, unwrapped, turned out to be a water jar with something in Spanish written across it...

"There it sits, over on my window sill, ninety-odd years later, without even a nick out of it.  The fan and parasol went quickly, the mat lasted until Leadville and was mourned when it passed, the olla has come through three generations of us, as have the bowie, the spurs, and the six-shooter."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Word of the day: abrazo

The word of the day is abrazo:

1. an embrace, used in greeting someone

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abrazo)

"Montaño made a 'hearty speech of welcome,' reported an American agent at the scene, and gave Villa an abrazo."

 - John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution

Word of the day: pacifico

The word of the day is pacifico:

1. a peaceful person.
2. a native of Cuba or the Philippine Islands who did not resist the Spanish occupation.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pacificos)

"On December 20 Zapata issued general orders to his Liberating Army of the South to provide 'every class of guarantees in the villages and fields and on the roads,...to respect and aid civil authorities who have been legally and freely elected,' and not to let revolutionary forces or pacificos 'destroy or burn the property of the haciendas, because these will be the patrimony and source of work for the villages.'"

 - John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution

I think in this context it just means "not revolutionary forces".

Word of the day: gachupín

The word of the day is gachupín:

\¦gächə¦pēn\noun

-s

chiefly Southwest sometimes disparaging

:a Spanish settler in America who immigrated from Spain (http://i.word.com/idictionary/gachupin)

"'Besides, Don Pancho...was a friend of the poor man.  He even had a fellow shot when he was governor—a gachupín landlord who'd had a peon thrashed almost to death.  You don't have any idea,' she went on, 'how the landlords and especially their gachupín managers abuse people around here.'"

- John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution

Word of the day: hacienda

The word of the day is hacienda:

1. a large landed estate, especially one used for farming or ranching.
2. the main house on such an estate.
3. a stock raising, mining, or manufacturing establishment in the country. 

1760, from Sp., "estate, plantation," from L. facienda "things to be done," from facere "to do" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hacienda)

"They knew the meeting must be important.  To make sure everyone could come, the elders had called for this evening, on a Sunday.  And to hide it from the hacienda foremen, they had passed the word around in private instead of ringing the church bell."

 - John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution

word of the day: pobla

The word of the day is pobla

Not entirely sure, but I'm guessing it's short for either

población: feminine noun 1. town, city (ciudad); village (pueblo) 2. population (personas, animales)  3. settlement, populating (acción de poblar) (spanishdict.com) or poblado: noun 1. Town, village, or place inhabited (habitado). (m) (spanishdict.com)

"Within a month, a couple of thousand more infections were reported.  It didn't rip through the pobla like the dengues or the poxes.  More of a slow leprous spread."

 - Junot Díaz, "Monstro", 4 & 11 June 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: culo

The word of the day is culo:

(informal o) (vulgar)2. bum (nalgas) (AmBr), butt (United States) (spanishdict.com)

"These days everybody wants to know what you were doing when the world came to an end.  Fools make up all sorts of vainglorious self-serving plep - but me, I tell the truth.

"I was chasing a girl...

Motherfuckers used to say culo would be the end of us.  Well, for me it really was."

 - Junot Díaz, "Monstro", 4 & 11 June 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: peccadillo

The word of the day is peccadillo:

Etymology:  Partly < Spanish pecadillo (first attested 1545–65, although probably earlier: compare peccadilian n.) < pecado sin ( < classical Latin peccātum error, moral lapse, in post-classical Latin also sin (Vetus Latina) < peccāre (see peccant adj. and n.) + -ātum -ate suffix¹) + -illo , diminutive suffix (see -illus suffix), and partly < Italian peccadiglio (1534) < Spanish pecadillo

A minor fault or sin; a trivial offence. (OED)

"“It isn’t a strong case for intentional misconduct. It seems it’s peccadilloes,” says Pierre Pica, a linguist at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, who has criticized the investigation."

  - Eugenie Samuel Reich, "Misconduct ruling is silent on intent", 13 September 2012 Nature

word of the day: mujerón

The word of the day is mujerón:


A stout woman; a matron.  (spanishdict.com)

"On the T, you swear you see your ex in the rush-hour mix and for a second your knees buckle, but it turns out to be just another Latina mujerón in a tailored suit."

 - Junot Díaz, "The Cheater's Guide to Love", New Yorker 23 July 2012

word of the day: carajito

The word of the day is carajito:

Kid, small child. (Latin American) (spanishdict.com)

"Elvis, Jr., watches you with considerable gravitas.  He is a piercingly cute carajito."

 - Junot Díaz, "The Cheater's Guide to Love", New Yorker 23 July 2012

word of the day: pica pollo

The word of the day is pica pollo:

Deep fried chicken. (Dominicancooking.com)

"You invite them all to sit down, order more beer and some bad pica pollo."

 - Junot Díaz, "The Cheater's Guide to Love", New Yorker 23 July 2012

word of the day: prima

The word of the day is prima:

Female cousin. (spanishdict.com)

"Of course they all have a sister or a prima they want you to meet."

 - Junot Díaz, "The Cheater's Guide to Love", New Yorker 23 July 2012

word of the day: colmado

The word of the day is colmado:

grocer's (shop). (spanishdict.com)

"Takes him less than five seconds to talk you into ordering a couple of grandes and a bottle of Brugal from the nearby colmado."

 - Junot Díaz, "The Cheater's Guide to Love", New Yorker 23 July 2012

word of the day: negocio

The word of the day is negocio:

business. (spanishdict.com)

"The happy couple leave you with the family and Elvis, Jr., while they visit various negocios to settle accounts and to pick up some necessities."

 - Junot Díaz, "The Cheater's Guide to Love", New Yorker 23 July 2012

word of the day: hijo

The word of the day is hijo:

son. (spanishdict.com)

"Elvis picks up the boy.  Mi hijo, he sings.  Mi hijo."

 - Junot Díaz, "The Cheater's Guide to Love", New Yorker 23 July 2012

word of the day: campesina

The word of the day is campesina:

rural, country (del campo); peasant (en el pasado, en países pobres). (spanishdict.com)

"So the padrino finally decides to visit, she declaims in one of those loud ronca campesina voices."

 - Junot Díaz, "The Cheater's Guide to Love", New Yorker 23 July 2012

word of the day: ronca

The word of the day is ronca:

Hoarse (persona), husky, having a rough voice. (spanishdict.com)

"So the padrino finally decides to visit, she declaims in one of those loud ronca campesina voices."

 - Junot Díaz, "The Cheater's Guide to Love", New Yorker 23 July 2012