• BatmanEnglish
    47•2 months ago

    According to my Spanish friend, 1st one is a cocodrilo 2nd is a cocodrilo 3rd is also a cocodrilo 4th is a monstruo

    • NielsBohronEnglish
      39•2 months ago

      Fun fact about the etymology of “alligator:” When the Spanish first landed in what is now Florida, they found alligators and simply called them “el lagarto,” which literally translates to “the lizard.” While there were many reptiles in the swamps and bayous, only one was enough of a problem to be called “THE lizard,” and after several mistranslations being borrowed into other languages, “el lagarto” morphed into “alligator”

      Or at least that’s what I read somewhere once.

      • Canadian_Cabinet English
        12•2 months ago

        We still colloquially call them lagartos, regardless if its a crocodile or alligator.

        • NielsBohronEnglish
          5•2 months ago

          Good to know! I took years of Spanish classes and my kids are in a Spanish immersion school in California, but I’ve only ever heard lagarto for smaller lizards and cocodrilo for anything resembling crocodilians

          Thanks for the info

          • Canadian_Cabinet English
            4•2 months ago

            Yeah lagarto literally means lizard, but we use it for pretty much any type of reptilian that looks like a lizard lol

      • @hakase@lemm.eeEnglish
        9•2 months ago

        All of this is correct, except that it’s not a “mistranslation”, it’s a borrowing. Boundaries between words and morphemes are commonly lost in borrowing, and borrowed sounds commonly undergo adaptation as well.

      • @Aussiemandeus@aussie.zoneEnglish
        8•2 months ago

        In the northern Territory of Australia we have no alligators. We are however famous for pur salt and fresh water crocodiles.

        So whe.n Europens arrived and found this few massive rivers full of crocodiles they called them the West, South, and Aast alligator rivers.

    • LinkOpensChest.wavEnglish
      8•2 months ago

      Fuuuuck I forgot about this

      That movie scared me so much as a child, I loved it

        • LinkOpensChest.wavEnglish
          1•2 months ago

          I had that on my watch list for a while, but when I heard it was canceled I never watched it.

          I was so disappointed when they canceled Mindhunter that I didn’t want to subject myself to that again.

    • MuchPineapplesEnglish
      4•2 months ago

      No, I also though so at first but a quick google confirms this is right.

      If you look up ‘freshwater crocodile’ you’ll see he looks a lot like his mommy.