Is one of the more delightful words in Spanish; there's a wet cat in there somewhere.
When used in reference to private morality it is equivalent I believe to the English word prudery. But draw out a bit to the public sphere and it incorporates more explicitly the notion of hypocrisy.
García Márquez makes use of this word in his autobiography to reinforce a hypothesis that his (and other) families' domestic disturbances were somehow linked to the state of Colombian politics at the time; more gato encerrado than gato mojado.
Yesterday I listened to an interview with Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant who sees people as numbers, numbers as colours etc. He has learned eleven languages, including Icelandic which he mastered in a week, and has invented one of his own: Mänti.
One of his favourite words in English is buttercup — because of the way that an object and a foodstuff have been combined to create an evocative new noun with strong visual associations.
Tammet's latest book, Embracing the Wide Sky would appear to be a fascinating interior examination of a mind capable of perceiving vast architectures of meaning in almost everything it focuses on. One to add to the wish list...
When used in reference to private morality it is equivalent I believe to the English word prudery. But draw out a bit to the public sphere and it incorporates more explicitly the notion of hypocrisy.
García Márquez makes use of this word in his autobiography to reinforce a hypothesis that his (and other) families' domestic disturbances were somehow linked to the state of Colombian politics at the time; more gato encerrado than gato mojado.
Yesterday I listened to an interview with Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant who sees people as numbers, numbers as colours etc. He has learned eleven languages, including Icelandic which he mastered in a week, and has invented one of his own: Mänti.
One of his favourite words in English is buttercup — because of the way that an object and a foodstuff have been combined to create an evocative new noun with strong visual associations.
Tammet's latest book, Embracing the Wide Sky would appear to be a fascinating interior examination of a mind capable of perceiving vast architectures of meaning in almost everything it focuses on. One to add to the wish list...
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