Guiñar is the verb to wink. The noun wink is guiño or guiñada.

To learn about something, or to find out about an event is to enterarse de said event. In English we often say that we heard about something when we might have actually read it. The word enterarse is to learn that information in some way; either through a verbal story, news broadcast or reading it [...]

Resulta que un día un hombre decide ir a comprar una estufa. Llega al comercio y le pregunta al encargado: “Disculpe, ¿cuánto cuesta esa estufa?” “Esa estufa cuesta 1500 dólares.” “¡1500 dólares!, pero, eso es una estafa!” “No, no, es una estufa.” It happened that one day a man decided to buy a new stove. [...]

Brotar is to blossom, bloom, flourish, break forth. The idea is that of a flower maturing. Where I heard the word was in a song which was talking about the life God gives “brote en mi corazon.” Just like the words flourish, bloom, blossom, etc. can be used figuratively in English, brotar can be used [...]

Estibar is to load or stow. This would be like loading something for shipping. We bought some boxes the other day that say, “Estiba maxima 4 cajas” which I assume to mean, “Don’t stack more than 4 high.”

Aparejar is a verb that means to saddle (as in a horse), or to rig up, or prepare something for use. I don’t know if it is a common word or not. I read it in literature and am not sure that I have ever seen it used otherwise.

Prestar is not an uncommon word. We most often see it used when talking about lending something to someone. Along the lines of lending is the idea of rendering service. The reflexive form of the verb, prestarse, has some other interesting meanings. It can mean “to be open to” as in the phrase: Dar ocasión [...]

The place to park your car is the estacionamiento. It is the noun for a parking lot or a parking space. The verb is reflexive and is estacionarse. One of the worst “spanglish” words I have heard is parquear meaning to park. I suppose out of all the bad combinations of English and Spanish I [...]

A campamento is a camp (noun). The gerund form of camping is often the same in Spanish, i.e.; ir de camping (to go camping). There were few posts to this site since we were in a campamento last week.

I have always used the word estirar to mean to stretch. It is used when you are exercising and stretch your muscles. It is also used when you are stretching high to grab something off a shelf. But a new use of the word came up last night. We were walking into a restaurant and [...]