Does 'enfermo' change in meaning?
It's a weird question, but today, I heard somewhere that if you say "soy enfermo" instead of "estoy enfermo" it means "I'm a pervert", and not "I am sick". (I could see this as being true, since some people are called 'sick' when they are in an altered state of mind.) Is this true, or is it just some false joke I heard?
1 Answer
Interesting question. It is closer to truth than you probably think, but not quite.
"Soy enfermo" is not correct Spanish, no matter how you look at it. However, "Soy un enfermo" means "I am a sick / diseased" person.
There is indeed a sort of a cultural custom that permits the use of the label "enfermo" for a socially maladjusted person or a sex criminal. My understanding is that you'd think that a person is only capable of committing certain acts if he or she is mentally very ill - "enfermo mental".
So it is not unusual to hear, when people are talking about certain kinds of offenders something like: "¡Ese desgraciado es un enfermo!" for example. Or "es que tiene una mente enferma!" (has a diseased mind).
Now, if you are in a hospital, and somebody asks you what you are doing there, it would be understandable to say "soy un enfermo (del hospital)". Still, most people would overwhelmingly choose to say: "estoy enfermo"; instead. That implies that it is a temporary condition, that you will recover and that, God forbid!, you are not a "diseased undesirable".
