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Showing posts from April, 2016

What's GAZEBO in Spanish? (word suggested by Cristina Faytong)

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This GAZEBO is so cozy people get sleepy after a while and return home to go to bed. Nice word, right? Lots of terms in English look like other words in Spanish, e.g. Hamburger is Hamburguesa, Comfortable is Confortable and Delicious is Delicioso. But GAZEBO...there is no even etymology for such term, though there are several hypotheses about its origin.  You can find GAZEBOS in gardens or in places in the open. They have several purposes: they are ornamental, they serve as shelters, and also as observatories (which is why they are located in cozy and quiet places). There are a few words in Spanish for GAZEBO (even QUIOSCO qualifies), but the one that is closest in meaning is GLORIETA.

How do you say FALSIFICAR DOCUMENTOS in English?

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Museum Guide: "And here you can see authentic FORGED documents from the early XX century." Well forget about To Falsificate, which actually is the Italian word for this crime.  To Falsify does exist but it means to alter a document to make it look false or incorrect. When you falsify something you take something and change it in a way it looks real but it's still intrinsically something else.  For instance, if you take a one-dollar bill and change it so as to look like a five-dollar bill that is to falsify. (the product is known as Counterfeit Money) If I make a document that never existed before or I create counterfeit money and next I claim it is real then that is FORGERY.  The verb TO FORGE exists and indeed it means to create a document for the purposes of deception but it also means to shape metal by hitting it in a furnace and then hammering it.