Sunday 19 June 2011

Pollo

La palabra de hoy es: 'pollo' = chick/ chicken.


In Spanish, 'pollo' is a noun of Latin origin. The masculine form, 'pollo' refers to a male baby chick or a young adult chicken. In Spanish, the noun 'pollo' is also used to mean a young bee, a guy/ young person (male) or the young of any animal.


When referring to food, 'pollo' means chicken. Food dishes with the noun 'pollo' in their name usually contain chicken.

The feminine form of the noun, 'polla', means a young female chicken. The noun 'polla' is not common in food terminology. However, the noun 'polla' has a common use with much different meanings:
  • 'Polla' in Spain, means penis/  dick/ cock. A related word 'gilipollas' means a jerk, an idiot, a fool
  • 'Polla' in Chile and Perú, means a lottery
  • 'Polla' in many Latin American countries, it means a private bet

In Spanish, the noun 'pollo' is used in some common expressions, such as:
  • Pollo asado (roast chicken)
  • Pollo al ajillo (garlic chicken -dish)
  • Montar un pollo (to start a kerfuffle/ noisy argument)
  • Sudar como un pollo (to sweat like a pig)

In Spain, the use of the noun 'polla' in its more vulgar meaning is quite common. Many expressions with the noun 'polla' in them are used of everyday language. Because of that, the noun 'polla' should be used with care.

Please see also some notes on the use of the nouns 'pollo' and other related words:
  1. In Spanish, the adult animals are not usually called 'pollo'/ 'polla', but 'gallo', adult male (rooster/ cock/ cockerel) and 'gallina' adult female (hen)
  2. The English word 'chick' when referring to a female does not translate as 'polla'
  3. The English word 'hen' when referring to a female does not translate as 'gallina'
  4. English words such as dickhead, jerk and similar are translated into Spanish as:
  • Huevón/ huevona (Latin America)
  • Boludo/ boluda (Latin America)
  • Pelotudo/ pelotuda (Latin America)
  • Pendejo/ pendeja (Latin America)
  • Gilipollas (Spain)

Examples of the use of 'pollo' are:
  • El pollo asado está muy rico (the roast chicken is very tasty)
  • Sudamos como pollos (we sweated like pigs)
  • De repente, se montó un pollo (suddenly, a kerfuffle was started)
  • ¡Cuidado con ese pollo (carefull with that guy!)

Love-Spanish.com loves the word 'pollo' in YouTube clip: El pollo justiciero
 
More on the word 'pollo', visit: Wordreference.com/es/en/ Pollo

*NB 'Click' on the speaker icon next to the word “pollo” in the link to hear the word pronounced.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

¡Que sabroso es el pollo con muchos sentidos diferentes!