• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Interfluency

Tagline
  • +1-901-288-3018
  • Contact
    • English

Mobile menu contact icon

Mobile menu contact information (EN)

  • Telephone: +1-901-288-3018
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • About
    • What We Do
    • The Word “Interfluency”
    • Our Team
    • Clients
  • Services
    • Linguistic
      • Translation
      • Interpreting
      • Writing/Editing
    • Cultural
    • Consulting
  • Resources
    • For Translators
    • For Clients
    • General Interest
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Search

verano

2013-06-02 by Pablo J. Davis Leave a Comment

Summer, its names and romance

Dear reader,

The calendar tells us that the Northern Hemisphere summer is still a few weeks away.  A few moments outdoors confirm that the season is already here. Let’s spend a minute with its names in English and Spanish.

“Summer romance” (amores de verano, in Spanish), a phrase that brings a sigh to many lips.

 

“Summer” is Germanic in origin (Old Saxon sumar)… One of the oldest extant texts in English is the poetic hymn to the season, ”Sumer is icumen in” (Summer is here), from 13th century Middle English.

Spanish verano, unsurprisingly, comes from Latinveranum; what’s unexpected to modern eyes and ears, though, is that veranum could mean either spring or summer.  These seasons, which we differentiate, were historically blurred together—as were their names. Indeed, Spanish primavera, for spring, used to mean “early summer”.

English speakers turn “summer” into a verb and speak of “summering in Maine”; in Spanish, the noun has to be retrofitted to make veranear: Antes veraneábamos en la sierra (We used to summer in the mountains).

(By the way, let’s clear up a lingering doubt: the seasons are not capitalized in English unless part of a proper name such as “Summer Olympics”, “Fall Semester”.)

Kids go to “summer camp”, which in Spanish can be called either la colonia de verano or, much like the English, el campamento de verano.

Spanish has another word for summer, almost unused except in literary contexts: el estío (from Latin aestivum), a relative of French été. The same root is present in “to estivate” or “estivation” (the latter a hot-weather equivalent of hibernation).

Finally, dear reader, there must be a “summer romance” that you can recall with a sigh.  Curiously, this phrase, the same as its Spanish equivalent, amores de verano, was little used before the 1960s.

¡Buenas palabras!

Pablo

Copyright © 2013 by Pablo Julián Davis. All rights reserved. A version of this essay was originally written for the June 9-15, 2013 edition of La Prensa Latina (Memphis, Tennessee), as part of the regular bilingual column “Mysteries and Enigmas of Translation”. Pablo Julián Davis (www.interfluency.com) is an ATA Certified Translator (inglés>español) and a Supreme Court of Tennessee Certified Interpreter (inglés<>español) who also provides custom-designed cultural/linguistic coaching and training.

Filed Under: Interflows Language+Culture Blog Tagged With: "Pablo J. Davis", certificado, certified, cultura, culture, Davis, English, español, estaciones, inglés, Memphis translator, Pablo, seasons, Spanish, summer, traducción, traductor, traductor de Memphis, translation, translator, verano

Primary Sidebar

Interfluency Translation+Culture

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address, then click on Follow! to follow this blog and receive email notification of new posts.

    First Name *

    Last Name *

    Email Address *

    Latest Posts

    • Tonight, sometime around midnight, will mark the 300th anniversary of… well… how shall I put it?
    • Drinking a unique toast
    • The violent alienation of “ajeno”
    • No “mere drudge” or slinger of words: Our teacher and friend, Samuel Johnson

    Tags

    "Pablo J. Davis" cultura culture Davis English español inglés Julián Pablo Spanish traducción traductor translation translator
     

    About Us

    Interfluency Translation+ Culture offers top-quality, reliable, professional services in two broad areas: linguistic and cultural. We also consult to help organizations identify and implement meaningful, quality solutions to cultural and language-related challenges.

    Latest Posts

    3.4.18 Tonight, sometime around midnight, will mark the 300th anniversary of… well… how shall I put it?

    By PABLO J. DAVIS Sunday, March 4, 2018 Tonight marks an extraordinary anniversary… of an extremely ordinary event, one that occurs millions of times a day around the world. ...

    12.20.17 Drinking a unique toast

    Enlace para español/ Click here for Spanish Dear reader, In this season, many a glass is raised and “toasts” offered. The word seems to come from an old custom of using spiced ...

    12.10.17 The violent alienation of “ajeno”

    Enlace para español/Click here for Spanish Dear reader, Recently your faithful servant stumbled across a recording of a song he had heard from time to time, but has now had a chance ...

    Latest Tweets

    Tweets by Interfluency

    Contact Us

    • +1-901-288-3018
    • info@interfluency.com
     

    Copyright © 2022 Interfluency™ Translation+Culture

    Website by John Gehrig

    • Copyright Notice
    • Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Contact Us