This expression is used when something goes wrong, but there’s no need to worry about it. Its origin dates back to the Cuban War and 1868 when Cuba was one of Spain’s last colonies. Due to an economic crisis, Cuba requested independence from Spain and that started the war, which lasted for 30 years with...Read More

Scroll down to read in Spanish. This is the expression used when someone returns to find another person has taken their place. The expression dates back to Henry IV reign (1425-1474) when two archbishops, Alfonso de Fonseca The Old and Alfonso de Fonseca The Young (uncle and nephew), had a ‘battle’. In 1460 Alonso de...Read More

The Spanish Word ‘moro’ comes from the latin maurus which referred to the inhabitants of the old kingdom of Mauritania and the antique Roman provinces of Tingitana Mauritania and Cesarian Mauritania. During the 8th century invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, the Morish were part of the force that conquered Spain in just 9 years. Over the...Read More

Spanish use this expression in a metaphorical way, but its origin from centuries ago is real. Continue reading if you want to know why. In medieval days hostelries were unpopular because of the food they served. The most common technique was to give cat meat when customers asked for hare. Today Spanish use this expression...Read More

Like in English, this Spanish expression refers to someone who sleeps very well.   The origin goes back to Salamanca in the 14th century and a story that talks about Álvaro de Torregrossa, a Castellan nobleman and his daughter Blanca Flora. A young Blanca met a rich Muslim merchant who she fell in love with. The merchant...Read More

When we say that something is in ‘el quinto pino’ we are indicating that it is far away. There is a funny part of this expression because actually the fifth pine existed in Madrid in 18th Century and it was located with four other pines in the antique Paseo del Prado. Philip V ordered these...Read More

The meaning of ‘hacerse el sueco’ refers to someone who pretends not to hear what is being said. It comes from the latin word ‘soccus’, a kind of shoe that actors used in antique roman theatre. From soccus comes the words zueco (wooden shoe) and zoquete (a piece of thick, short wood). This last word...Read More

This week we have one misunderstood expression with two different meanings: When we have no money, Spaniards sometimes say ‘estamos a dos velas’, which means our pockets are empty. This expression came up at secret card games in which in addition to the players was a banker in charge of the money who was ‘lit...Read More

Have you ever thought about sending someone far away? You couldn’t handle him/her anymore and the only thing you want to do is…¡mandarle a freir espárragos! This phrase has its origins in the XIX Century and was used with the same intention like nowadays but it was used as ‘go and fry asparagus’ or ‘go...Read More

We use ‘No hay tu tía’ when we want to say there is no solution or the situation is hopeless. This expression has a very interesting origin when ‘tutía o atutia’ – a medicinal ointment used mainly to treat eyes sickness was introduced during the Arabic times around 1,000 years ago.   The product, whose...Read More