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danielintempesta@lemmy.world

Quick question: How can "bajo" mean "short" and "under"? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world to c/spanish@lemmy.world

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I'm usually pretty good at just accepting and understanding the connections between two or more distinct meanings of a word in Spanish (e.g "Ya" meaning soon, now, or already, depending on the context) but it strikes me as really weird that "bajo" can mean:

Short in stature
placed low down
Undergo something, e.g pone al cuerpo bajo estrés
Underneath something (debajo is also used)

Understanding the etymology would help, I think. Sorry if this is an annoying question, Just want to hear some thoughts on it

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[–] teft@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Have you looked up the etymology for it? According to RAE it comes from the latin bassius which meant short and fat.

I’m not sure on your question but there are even crazier examples than yours. My favorite one is prestar which means both to lend and to borrow. Also huesped it means both host and guest.

[–] FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Prestar is definitely gonna get confusing, I didn't know that one. Huesped I can understand

[–] teft@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Not as confusing as you’d think. Once your fluency gets high enough you can usually tell which definition is being used from the context.