Allie in Decatur, Alabama, says her mother referred to an impish child as a schnickelfritz. This term for a “young rascal” is often used affectionately, and spelled any of several ways, including snicklefritz, snickelfritz, and schnickelfritz. It’s of German origin, most likely a combination of the common masculine name Fritz with another element, possibly the German dialectal word Schnickel or Schniggel, meaning “a little boy’s penis.” Schnickelfritz shows up in late 19th-century U.S. newspapers as a joking stand-in for a person of German heritage, much like the English term Joe Six-Pack or Spanish name Fulano is used as a placeholder. This is part of a complete episode.
Why do some Spanish speakers use adaptations of certain English terms when there’s already a perfectly good word for the same thing in Spanish? Sometimes the result is called “Spanglish.” For example, Spanish cuentas means “bills,”...
We’ve previously discussed when pigs fly and other idioms expressing profound skepticism that something will occur. That prompted an email from Guillermo in Tucson, Arizona, who shared a Spanish phrase that conveys a similar idea: cuando la...
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