Forums > Specific Focus > Learning Spanish

jerezano

Nov 21, 2007, 4:41 PM

Post #1 of 5 (7100 views)

Shortcut

roncando en sus anchas

Can't Post | Private Reply

Hello Sr. Quevedo, Esperanza and others.

Help. I am helping a student read Sir Thomas More's Utopía in the University of Madrid S[amosj translation. He of course will have to write an essay when he completes the book.

We just ran into the idiom (modismo) "roncando en sus anchas" which apparently from the context means wasting time in idleness.

Anybody know what it really means? I can't find it any dictionaries. Roncando means snoring or grunting. Anchas means your haunches. Grunting on your haunches? Doesn't mean a thing. So, have we ever heard the modismo here in México? Has anybody ever heard it in Spain. Reading that portion of Utopia in English doesn't help either.

Adiós. A perplexed jerezano.

jerezano

Nov 22, 2007, 6:47 AM

Post #2 of 5 (7090 views)

Shortcut

Re: [jerezano] roncando en sus anchas

Can't Post | Private Reply

Hello,

The passage in English reads: "First almost all women, which be the half of the whole number: or else if the women be anywhere occupied, there most commonly in their stead the men be idle."

The passage in Spanish reads: "En primer lugar, casi todas las mujeres-que es la mitad de la población-y la mayor parte de los hombres, cuando las mujeres trabajan, roncan a sus anchas todo el día."

So the context is that the people idle all day. But what does the modismo "roncan a sus anchas todo el día" mean? Is this the only way it is used?

Adiós. jerezano

BrentB

Nov 23, 2007, 3:46 PM

Post #3 of 5 (7060 views)

Shortcut

Re: [jerezano] roncando en sus anchas

Can't Post | Private Reply

" Don't do nothing but sit around"

b rent

quevedo

Nov 24, 2007, 9:27 AM

Post #4 of 5 (7048 views)

Shortcut

Re: [jerezano] Roncando a sus anchas

Can't Post |

Snoring at will; snoring without restraint.

Saludos cordiales,

Quevedo

jerezano

Nov 24, 2007, 10:23 AM

Post #5 of 5 (7045 views)

Shortcut

Re: [quevedo] Roncando a sus anchas

Can't Post | Private Reply

Hello all,

Thanks for your help with "roncando en (a) sus anchas". Idleness is the obvious answer, and you folks have confirmed what my local Zacatecas guru has said: "huevón",. And I like Sr. Quevedo's answer: "Snoring at will, without restraint."

I now know how to use the modismo although I had never heard it before. The only notable difference between the modismo in the book (Spain) and the modismo which you folks have heard here in México is the preposition en vs. a. En there in Spain and a here in México. That difference is not important.

Adiós. jerezano

(This post was edited by jerezano on Nov 24, 2007, 10:28 AM)