The word marcha has many meanings, most of which have to do with either marching or motion. The one meaning I learned this week, which is not in the dictionary I most often consult, is for a car starter motor. The word I most often seen written is arranque to mean a starter, but locally [...]

I thought tintorería was a window tinting shop for a long time. Even though there is a lot of sun here I could not figure out why they needed so many tint shops. Then I found out tintorería is a dry-cleaner’s shop.

I have seen the word abarrotes on many stores. These are typically smaller stores that sell just basic food items. Mostly small neighborhood stores. I thought it meant something like “quick in and out store” but my friend told me the other day she always thought it meant groceries. I looked up the word and [...]

Desechables are disposables. Items you would use once then discard, such as paper or plastic plates, cups and bowls or syringes or diapers.

Butaca is an arm chair, or a seat. It can mean theater seating. At our local baseball stadium the seating is divided in four sections. Two of them are called butaca and butaca alta. Butaca would be the field level seating and the butaca alta is the upper deck.

Manejar is to manage. I don’t know why I had not seen this before, but this evening I made the connection that the two words manejar and manage have the same root. Literally the word means to handle. We use it to mean to contol both in Spanish and in English.

Another, apparently, uniquely Mexican word. Salpicadera is a fender. This can be a fender for a car or a fender for a bicycle/motorcycle. Guardafangos is also used for mudflaps or fenders in Mexico. Argentina uses the word guardabarros.