A previous entry at DSWU I talked about a marcha as being the word they use in Mexico as the starter motor for a car. In Argentina the same English word is represented by burro de arranque. However, I have also heard people just call it burro. Seems that the lowly donkey has many uses [...]

At a friend’s bicycle shop one night he gave me a calcomanía with his name on it. The only way I had heard this term used was to indicate branding of an item by placing a sticker with the seller’s product name on it. However, the word calcomanía can be used for any kind of [...]

Capot is the word used in Argentina for the hood of a car (bonnet). At least, that is what one friend told me. Reading around on the web it appears that in Uruguay this word means the trunk of the car (boot). I have also seen that capó can be used for hood (bonnet). In [...]

When looking for an estimate or value of something you may see it called a cotización. It can be used to mean a quote or price of an item. I have heard it used to talk about the amount of value one item has in the currency of another. For example: The value of the [...]

A physical or emotional shock is called conmoción. This is also the word commotion or concussion in English. To be specific, if you are talking about a concussion of the head, this is called a conmoción cerebral. A direct translation of the Spanish word into Engish is con meaning with and moción meaning motion. With [...]

While ropa is the common term for clothes or clothing, the word indumentaria is more of a formal term. It is often used when talking about apparel or garments for a specific activity. Not necessarily a uniform, but often uniforms are considered indumentaria. An example: indumentaria para bomberos would be the special apparel that firemen use [...]

Oca is a female goose. I met a man the other day whose last name was Montes de Oca. Not knowing what an oca was he tried to explain it to me. In the end a good dictionary came to the rescue. There are times when learning through experience and trying to figure out a [...]