Leña is firewood. It would be used for wood that you would use for a fireplace or for cooking. Just like we would use the word firewood. It can be large or small wood, but typically smaller wood that would be used for cooking.
Interesting leño is log or block of wood.
Gatear is to move like a cat (gato). It does not refer to grace or agility as we use it in English but to walking on all four legs. Gatear means to crawl.
I remember when I first became aware of the word digno. I was in a church service on a Thursday night across the border from Texas. My friend and I had gone across to play some soccer and see if we could find a church to attend that evening to experience a Mexican church service.
In many of the songs the word digno was repeated over and over. I did not learn what the word meant until later. It is worthy or deserving. I don’t imagine it is a word that most people use a lot, but in many church songs it is used often.
Terco is stubborn. I learned this word some time back when I was teaching a class on manners. I don’t really remember why the word was important to the class, but I did hear something recently that struck me as funny which helps me remember the word even better.
We live in the state of Yucatan and the people here are called Yucatecos. My friend told me that sometimes people from other parts of Mexico call them Yucatercos because they are stubborn. I will stay out of the debate as to whether the people here are stubborn or not. But, it is an easy way to remember that terco means stubborn.
Tonight while walking through a shopping plaza I saw the word ternura. Based on the way it was used, I gathered it meant something like loving or affectionate, which is the word tierno. Ternura turns out to be tenderness. They are indeed related. Tierno is the adjective form of the noun ternura.
I saw te obsequia on an advertisement tonight and thought it was interesting.
The verb is obsequiar and its meaning is similar to the English word obsequious which means to fawn over someone or be ingratiating. Obsequiar means to shower someone with attention or gifts.
Te obsequia can be used idiomatically to mean it flatters you.
More common words for flatter are adular and lisonjear.
The Christmas story in Luke 2 starts off in the Spanish Bible with, “Aconteció en aquellos dÃas.” The verb acontecer simply means happen. The past tense as it is used here is it happened. The wording found in the English King James Bible says “And it came to pass.” Both “aconteció” and “it came to pass” are commonly found in the wording of the Bible.
A happening would then be acontecimiento.
Merry Christmas from Discover Spanish With Us.
