Yes, yes, I know that descolgado isn´t exactly a major lexical revelation to most people who have been learning Spanish for a while. We´ve all left the phone off the hook – or we did when phones had hooks.
No, my Word of the Week and the one I´ll be monkey-wrenching into conversations for at least seven days is an “old” word in what, for me, is a new context.
Picture it. I´m at the pool in my faded, nine-year old, fushcia, fuchia, fuck ….. pink bikini. (Actually, don´t picture it. Only Wes Craven is fully-qualified for that).
Oh no! Not Mo at the pool!
Anyway, I was having an intimate chat by the pool with one of my favourite neighbours. We´ve lived up the same “close” for ten years but I don´t know her name and she doesn´t know what country I´m from.
¡Qué grande está tu hija!, the affable lady exclaimed, as she always does when she coincides with Malassie who at this point was sitting on the grass. The last time they coincided Malassie had let me put a sticky-out dress on her.
A while back.
Mija, drawing daggers at the two, dithery old fogies perusing her, one of them her Mum, is on the edge of that very Spanish phenomenon, the pandilla.
Panditas
You´ll know by now that, contrary to appearances, this term has nothing to do with young, Asian bears but is a group of noisy, rude, gesticulating, cursing, acting-like-I´m-Justin Bieber/Shakira, twelve year old boys and girls flirting unashamedly in a public place.
Since talking about one´s kids is the número uno topic for women here, I launched into an explanation as to why Malassie was perched prettily and rather primly on the outside edge of the towel-strewn, ten-strong pandilla settlement.
Well, she´s got a couple of good pals at school but they don´t seem to want to come to the pool orthehouseordoanythingandsoI´mtryingtogethertomakenewfriends…..
Bloody hell! So difficult to explain that Malassie´s school pals are unavailable, for reasons unknown, over the summer so she needs new ones.
But my neighbour, older, wiser, nicer and rather more (totally) Spanish than me said,
“Se ha quedado descolgada.”
SHE´S BEEN LEFT HANGING!
She has, she has (barely stifled sob)! That´s exactly what´s happened. Thank you, native speaker!
But by now Malassie´s edging her way into the pandilla, not an easy endeavour for a shy girl. Fortunately, there´s a nice girl who´s amazed that Malassie´s bilingual and a hot boy ……
….. so, she won´t be descolgada for long.
And now I really have to start worrying about her being colgada ….
In love!
That truly IS horrific!
About Mo
Having a laugh insofar as having the knowledge that you could be encouraging a clueless Guiri like me into confusing most of the regulars in my loca with non-existent words. Or something like that
Well then, look it up in the dictionary, though come to think of it, I haven´t looked it up myself. The other night Mr. Mo mentioned another usage (why bother with a dictionary when I´ve got Mr. Mo?) to do with cycling races. There´s the pelotón, which is the leading group and then those who fall way back are “descolgados.” Anyway, just use the word in a conversation – I´ve stuck it into a few already – and see the respectful looks you get!
Like the loca!
Don’t know whether to say you’re lucky or not – my 16 year old lass won’t even consider going to the pool with me! Of course, I never had these issues with my mother when I was 16 – no pool for starters!
I´m sure Sara won´t want to be anywhere near me in a couple of years, even if I do get a bikini I can be seen in. Now that she´s hooking up with a group, my own towel is migrating further and further away. In Glasgow we had the “swimming baths”, in full mid-winter, a very different experience altogether. Thanks for taking the time to comment Maxine!
Another one for the spreadsheet – thanks Mo !
I am also going to force myself to use it in conversation down the local bar tonight (Will let you know how I get on, assuming of course that you are not just having a laugh at my ignorant and gullible expense…)
I´ll be wanting to see this notorious spreadsheet someday! It´s aleady a sort of guiri magna carta. Why would I have a laugh at you??? (When I´m so clearly having a laugh at my daughter…). However, in what context would you use it? You have to be careful or your offspring can sound like right nasty wee bitches/buggers that nobody wants to play with. Do we want to make that public?