El que es perico…
Last week, before we ran out of space, we were looking at various expressions having to do with birds. There are several that deal with parrots, or pericos in Spanish. The most obvious has to do with the fact the parrots tend to be verbose (in their own parrot-like way), so when someone talks a blue streak, we’d say to them “Cállate, pareces perico,” which means literally “Be quiet, you seem like a parrot.”
Another good parrot expression is no pasar (uno) de perico perro. One uses this phrase when wanting to point out that someone, let’s say Demetrio, will never get anywhere in life. In this case we would say: “Ese Demetrio nunca pasará de perico perro”, which generally gives you the idea that Demetrio will never amount to a hill of beans.
A perico saying that means just the opposite is el que es perico, dondequiera es verde. Let’s say someone is really good at something, a real expert, top notch, la crème de la crème. Well, this guy —or gal (or ms., or girl, or woman, or person…; I think I’m going to give up being politically correct)— is going to continue being top notch wherever he or she goes. In other words, if you’re good, you’re going to be good anywhere, and it shows. It makes sense because these birds, being parrot green, stand out in a crowd.
Going back to the dogs, as in perico perro and other sayings we’ve taken a look at, we can come to the general conclusion that canine phrases are negative, despite the fact that — at least according to popular culture — dogs are man’s best friend.
Here are two more dog sayings: con dinero baila el perro, and muerto el perro, se acabó la rabia. The first is vaguely similar to money talks, nobody walks, meaning that things will get done, or that people will do things, only when the price is right, which makes the dog — and us — into mercenaries, but that’s the truth of the matter. There’s another saying in Spanish with the same meaning, only without the dog: dinerito habla, which means, not surprisingly, money talks. Take note, however, that it should always be used in the diminutive.
The second phrase is tragic, and it has a sister saying, equally as tragic: muerto el niño, se tapa el pozo. First let’s take a look at muerto el perro, se acabó la rabia.
At times things can really get out of hand when something or someone goes around spreading or inspiring chaos, bad vibrations, failures, etc. If the source of the problem can be nipped in the bud, the consequences usually take care of themselves. In other words, there is a carrier and there is a disease. If you can get to the carrier and eliminate it (the dog), the disease it carried (rabies) is eliminated along with it. The tragic thing is that the carrier may not only be carrying a disease but beneficial things as well, just like good-ole Rover who just happend to get bitten by a rabid squirrel and started foaming at the mouth before going after the kids: if you want to get rid of the rabies, you’ve got to kill the dog. The second saying, muerto el niño, se tapa el pozo, refers to the fact that many times we don’t solve problems until it’s too late and tragedy has already struck, as in the case cited: only after the child has drowned do we get around to covering the well. This can be easily applied to many situations.
And speaking of dogs, journalist Jessica Kreimerman has just e-mailed me with interesting information about “echar los perros.” It seems that, according to her sources, this phrase comes from the fact that the Spanish conquistadors used dogs to intimidate and “round up” their indigenous victims, who then became their unwilling lovers. In other words, the animals were used as accesories to rape. Great news…
There are still many more handy animal phrases to explore, and we shall return with them next week.
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