Nov
8
¡Anglicismo puro!
Score another point for the English language in its continuing invasion of Spanish.
The Real Academia Española, arbiter of all that is standard in castellano, announced this week that the English term “pen drive” will be officially accepted in the Spanish language. I guess it’s because its Spanish equivalent, dispositivo portátil pequeño de almacenamiento de datos, doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
“Pen drive” and “USB” (Universal Serial Bus) are among several of the new words and phrases that will be added to the next edition of the DRAE (Diccionario de la Real Academia Española), which hits bookstores in 2013. (That’s five years from now. Still enough time for me to campaign for the additions of “muffin” and “gummy bear.” Their wimpy Spanish equivalents, magadalena and osito de oro, have got to go. 
)
However it’s not only English words that are being welcomed into the DRAE. Several colloquial Spanish expressions have also made the cut. They include: chiste verde (a dirty joke) and como una moto, which is a colloquial way of saying that somebody is horny. But the DRAE will be defining it as “estado de gran excitación” or as a way of referring to an individual who is “muy activo y acelerado.” Euphemisms!
Find the entire news story here.
Hehe, I have never actually heard the expression pen drive here in Spain, mostly USB, or memoria USB or memory pen.
But magdalena is one of my favourites, I adore the word!
I was unfamiliar with “como una moto“. And I thought my wife was just complaining about my snoring! jeje.