salao

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Espeland

#437972 Fri, 02 Nov 07 03:15 PM

Hello everybody !

I wonder where the word "salao" comes from. It seems to mean "very unlucky" and appears right at the beginning of Ernest Hemingway's "The old man and the sea" :

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, [...]

In Portugese "salão" means "saloon" but that can't be the origine, can it ?

Espeland

Joined on Fri, Jul 13 2007

Switzerland

Junior Member (42)

Anonymous

#437975 Fri, 02 Nov 07 03:28 PM

Perhaps Spanish?

Anonymous

Marius Hancu

#438000 Fri, 02 Nov 07 05:01 PM

Spanish, I'd guess ...

Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

Montreal, Canada

Forum Guru (11,236)

Clive

#438126 Sat, 03 Nov 07 12:18 AM

Hi,

It seems to be very much a slang term in Spanish.

Have a look at the discussion at http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=416012

It seems to be a bit of a puzzle, even for Spanish speakers, as they offer different comments.

There is a suggestion that it is derived from the word 'salado', but even that doesn't really answer the question.

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004

Canada

Forum Guru (19,216)

El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo

Pucca

#438154 Sat, 03 Nov 07 02:45 AM

I wonder why "salao" isn't translated. If I hadn't read the link Clive gave, I would have imagined that the word could mean "crazy". "

I've been googling the text in other languages and in Spanish and Basque, that world still remains as "salao". Tongue Tied [:S]

..I've just looked for "salado" in my dictionary and it says:

5 MÉX [persona] Que es víctima de un maleficio - In Mexican, someone who is victim of a curse.

Pucca

Joined on Sun, Aug 27 2006

Advanced Member (2,796)

¿Alguna vez has tenido un sueño tan real que al despertarte no sabías qué creer?

Anonymous

#513348 Wed, 14 May 08 01:23 AM

it holds a slang meaning, much like going "postal" does in the U.S. - workers bring guns to work and kill people, and it just so happens to occur at post offices more frequently than other industries (or at least at one time it did)

salao is a tiny fishing island that rarely has good news to speak of. therefore, going/being salao is to be unlucky in fishing in this context.

- db

Anonymous

CalifJim

#513352 Wed, 14 May 08 01:41 AM

Pucca
I've just looked for "salado" in my dictionary and it says:

5 MÉX [persona] Que es víctima de un maleficio - In Mexican, someone who is victim of a curse.

From wordreference.com

salar

I	verbo transitivo 1 (echar sal a una comida) to add salt to 2 (poner en salazón) to salt 3 LAm fam (estropear, desgraciar) to spoil, ruin 4 LAm (dar o causar mala suerte) to bring bad luck to

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Forum Guru (15,629)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche