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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 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.