Friday, 16 December 2011

There is an expression in Spanish that is: "Encontrar a tu media naranja".

However, this expression can be considered ambiguous, at least, for non-native Spanish. Why? Because they can interpreted in two different ways, which are show through those pictures:


It means that for one person who does not understand what this expression really means in a literary way for a Spanish speaker, "encontrar tu media naranja" can produce different kind of confusion !!

Nevertheless, "Encontrar a tu media naranja" can be translated into English like " to find the perfect match"



But, where does this expression come from? This amorous expression comes from a myth that is narrated by the Greek poet Aristophanes in the Plato's work titled: "the banquet".

In this myth, the human being was almost perfect, the manhood was like oranges, rounds with two faces one in front to another in the same head, four arms and four legs. Limbs were used to move rolling.

One of them dared to face to gods, because he thought that he was like the gods. So, Zeus punished to every human being to be cut into two.

For that reason, the human beings were so serious and sad looking for their other part. However, there was the possibility of finding the another part of your body and if someone found it, he had to embrace his second part until his death, because this human being was complete.





5 comments:

  1. Nice post! But I think that the English version 'to find a perfect match' can also be a bit ambiguous because the term 'match' can also mean 'cerilla, fósforo'... Think about it ahahah

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  2. hahaha well,so, good advice, Isabel! Probably, the next post can be about it, thank you!

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  3. Very nice post! Interesting point of view about the combination of food: orange and language your partner!!!:))))big like for your post!!!!

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  4. thanks, I learned a new spanish expression :)

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