"echar de manos"'?

Question

can someone explain to me how the spanish saying "echar de manos" relates to someone missing some else'

Answer 1

I would also like to know why you "run out" of something when you don't have any more.

James Santiago said:

To add to what Natasha said, I'll explain to you why echar de menos means to miss someone, if you explain to me why we say to miss someone. It sounds like we are aiming some projectile at a person, but the shot goes astray.In other words, we can't always analyze idioms logically.

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Answer 2

If you search for "miss" in the Search Forum box, you will see plenty of related discussions.

Te echo de menos. / I miss you.

It's an idiom. You can't translate it word-for-word.

Please note it is menos (less), not manos (hands).

Answer 3

To add to what Natasha said, I'll explain to you why echar de menos means to miss someone, if you explain to me why we say to miss someone. It sounds like we are aiming some projectile at a person, but the shot goes astray.

In other words, we can't always analyze idioms logically.

Answer 4

good point!

Answer 5

I would also like to know why you "run out" of something when you don't have any more.

Or why it's the same thing for a house to burn up or burn down, but it's different to chop down a tree and then chop it up.

Answer 6

Guillermo said:

I would also like to know why you "run out" of something when you don't have any more.

If I had to guess, "run" is not just walk so fast that your legs at both in the air at some point, but also a verb used to describe how processes evolve, how things "run" through time. Add "out", which etymologically conveys the idea of away, not present, and therefore, not having someone or something, and with a little bit of imagination, you get the idea of completely finished: at the end of a certain process, everything went out, run out... and never came back.

You'll probably need similar metaphorical interpretations to understand many things in Spanish too.

Answer 7

Actually, my guess as to the etymology of "to run out" is that it comes from the idea of water running out of a cup, bucket, etc. When you pour water from a bucket, it eventually runs out of the bucket (we say that liquids run in the meaning of to flow; as in a river runs), and when it is all gone, it has "run out." This idea is easily extrapolated to other things, such as beans or rice that are poured out of a container, and from there to other items that do not pour, such as flour or apples or money.

That's my guess, anyway.