WotD: paper cup

[muckefuck]

1. der Pappbecher
2. de kartonnen beker
3. el vaso de papel
4. el got de paper
5. le gobelet carton
6. y cwpan/dysgl papur
7. an cupán páipéir
8. 종이컵
9. 紙杯 zhǐbēi

Notes: The inspiration for this post was a visit to Chipotle last Friday. Instead of buying a drink, I almost always ask for "una copa pa' agua". Every single time up until the last, I'd always been handed a paper cup without any comment. But the big itchwoot-shaped cutie who's not normally working the register asked me politely, "¿un vaso para agua?" and made me wonder if I'd been getting it wrong all this time.

The answer, naturally, is "yes". In Standard Spanish, copa designates several things, including a trophy (e.g. Copa Mundial "World Cup"), a goblet, and a snifter; what is does not designate, however, is a disposable drinking vessel. I can only conclude from the naturalness with which I was understood before that copa is a Spanglish equivalent for "cup" in the same way as carpeta for "carpet" or aplicación for "application". At least I realised this before returning to Spain!

Comments

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

You got it right.

Copa is just for drinking wine here, or it's the generic term for "alcoholic drink", like saying "¿Te apetece tomar una copa?" or "Nos fuimos de copas".

Cup, actually, is usually translated as "taza", like "Cup of coffee" (taza de café).

What it is funny is that most "disposable cups" here are made of plastic, so we usually say "un vaso de plástico", even when it's made from carton. But hey, this is a country where we call things in many weird ways.

As a computer man, "aplicaciones" are just programs, and "carpetas" are only the "Folders" in which you divide your storage capacities. The other things are "solicitudes" and "alfombra", the latter being a word from arab origin.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

My sister-in-law's favourite piece of Spanglish is vacunar la carpeta (i.e. aspirar la alfombra). I always thought this was complete nonsense in Standard Spanish, but it could actually mean something in la jerga informática!

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

Absolutely not, LOL
But it's great spanglish
I have a problem with it. I either speak English or speak Spanish - but I can't mix them!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

¿No es posible vacunar una carpeta contra viruses y troyanos?

És lo mismo amb el castellà i el català? Un o l'altre, però no los mesclas nunca?

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

How can you vaccine a folder against viruses and trojans?

De cualquier modo, un antivirus te protege todo el sistema, no sólo una carpeta (I'm more old skool and I still use the DOS term: directorio/subdirectorio).

Sí, sí barregem molt el català i el castellà. Però només paraules molt concretes i sempre de manera original. Només s'adapten per a la pronunciació o denota que el parlant té un nivell educatiu baix.

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

I take it he was pear-shaped? :-P

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

But in a good way!

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

it's apparently easy to mistake it for something else anyway ;)

vaso vs. taza

[queenmomcat.livejournal.com]

Now I just want someone to explain the precise difference between "cup" and "glass" without resorting to "they're made of different materials, obviously".

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I don't think it can be done. To look for "precise differences" between general terms like this is to misunderstand how categorisation works in human language.

Informática

[ursine1.livejournal.com]

Ruben tells me that several years back he had some Windows courses in castellano. But when it came time for the tests, which are "standardized" in English, there was much confusion over the terms used. So now everything is done in English.

When I have had problems with my Internet connection, I don't know what to say to the support person as all the information from the router is in English. And it is not easy to find translations for many of the esoteric terms being used. Turns out that they don't bother "translating" except for the most commonly used ones.

Chuck, still hating this US standard PC keyboard