What is "estivalidad"?
From El País: "Con estivalidad y, sin duda, con alevosía, se producen en Madrid unos episodios policiales........"
I suppose it has the same root as "estival" (summer, pertaining to the summer), but I wonder if it has a more specific meaning. I think it might have something to do with summer holidays. Didn't find it in Sdict's dictionary.
7 Answers
I think I may have it.
As the sentence goes "Con estivalidad y, sin duda, con alevosía", I googled the phrase "estivalidad y alevosía" and found it in different texts, all about the same thing - politicians using the summer to make doubtful decisions when everybody's away on holidays.
I think it might be a play on the phrase "con premeditación y alevosía - with malice aforethought" (a legal expression to describe a premeditated crime)
Here's an example text :
"En el corazón del verano suelen ocurrir extraños milagros institucionales, pues aunque los jefes andan por ahí disfrutando de un merecidísimo descanso y todos jugamos al despiste y a la bobería, los boletines oficiales y las actividades públicas y privadas siguen su marcheta. Se hacen licitaciones, se inician obras, se ejecutan derribos... Como es bien sabido, en bastantes casos de lo que se trata es de perpetrar alguna jugarreta con estivalidad y alevosía, o en todo caso de sacarse de encima algún asunto engorrosillo."
Hi Koya, no it really means not that the summer is here...like , in Madrid nobody works in summer, so all kind of people do stupid things as they have nothing better to do
its summer ,the perfect word for it.....as heidita said ....
I think it might be a play on the phrase "con premeditación y alevosía - with malice aforethought" (a legal expression to describe a premeditated crime)
Very nice, this is exactly it
And as I said before, in summer they do all kind of stupid things ...as people are on holiday, they won't find out till they come back to find that the bus fare has gone up, the electricity bill....etc.
In English there is a now notorious phrase that carries a similar sense of doing something political while nobody is paying close attention. "A good day to bury bad news"
Jo Moore was a "spin doctor" who, when the twin towers happened, suggested it was a good day to announce unpopular political acts as, probably nobody would notice.
yeah its right
The funny thing is that when I google "estivalidad y alevosía" now, this thread comes up on top of the results. At the same time (completely unrelated, of course) the quoted article is at the top of the "lo más visto" list of articles in El País.
So good for my ego. And for SpanishDict. 
