I should and will write more about the Mexican elections and the future of Pemex. Especially given the food for thought Andrei Gomberg presented here!
Instead, though, I want to write about swearing in Argentina. In my travels to and around that country I have often found myself utterly dumbfounded by what people are trying to tell me. I understand the words, but the sentences just don’t make any sense. So therefore we begin a new series: “How to swear in Argentine.”
We begin with “irse a las piñas,” which does not mean, terrible Guardian translation notwithstanding, “go to the pineapples.” I don’t mean that the translation is terrible because the expression is figurative; I mean simply that “piña” does not mean “pineapple” in Argentine. For some reason, the word for pineapple in Argentine is “ananá”; “piña” is “pinecone.”
Which makes more sense when you consider that “irse a las piñas” means “come to blows” or “have it out” or “step” or “throw down.” And since pinecones are not something that Argentines talk about particularly much (save Christmastime) other than in the context of “going to,” there is never going to be any confusion.
So if two people in a Pilar bar start whaling on each other, now you know how to describe it.
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