Word of the Day

Question

At first I thought that the Word-of-the-Day e-mail would be a great way to improve my vocabulary, but now I have some concerns.

For example, today's e-mail says buzón = postbox. Well, postbox is not a word in American English; it's mailbox. I've never heard "postbox", but it must be British. This leaves me to wonder if some of the Spanish words sent are regional as well, or only used in either Castellian or Latin-American Spanish.

Also, another word of the day was media = mean. What kind of mean? Mean, vicious dog? Poor, mean dwelling? I already know media for "half", so my assumption would be either an arithmetic mean or a median (both of which are sloppily referred to as "average" in English).

All this to say: if the Word of the Day could include more precise definitions, discussion of when to use the word and variations in usage, and sample sentences . . . I would love it!

Answer 1

Sorry, motley, we could well call this "the mistake of the day"

afeitado: (the) shave, shaven

shaving: afeitando

Answer 2

• I know this is an old post, but I wanted to give it a try!
• Postbox could be the equivalent to P.O. BOX. = Apartado Postal, Apartado de correo, or even casilla de correos (Argentina). This is different that Buzón = Mailbox.
• Media = Media (News), half, sock (Colombia). Now, mean could translate. "Medio" Medio de transporte. A mean of transportation.
• List item

Answer 3

We use mail carrier to avoid gender

Answer 4

Wow, "posties" is one I've never heard . . . at least that eliminates the awkwardness of saying "mailmen or mailwomen"! Well, it seems we have different usages in (North) America, Canada, and Britain. Thank you for the input!

Answer 5

i'm american but my husband is from England and he calls bins on the corner of the streets "postboxes."
though, what's stranger is that he says in the UK "Posties" (mailmen) walk up to the house and put the mail through a hole in the door called the "letterbox."

Answer 6

Interesting! In midwestern America, for the above one could conceivably say postbox, but it is much more common to hear "post office box" or just "P.O. box".

I looked up "postbox" on the site referenced by motley, and there it seemed to be referring to the large drop-box (blue in the U.S.) outside the post office where you can drive up & put your mail in the slot. We would call this mailbox, as well as calling the ones on the side of the road mailbox, as you mention.

Answer 7

Babylon Spanish-English
afeitado
adj. shaven

afeitado (m)
n. shaving; shave

afeitar
v. shave

afeitarse
v. shave

Answer 8

I have shaved: (yo) me he afeitado
He has shaved: (él) se ha afeitado

I think that shaving can work as a noun. As it does "afeitado": el afeitado diario puede causar irritacion.

Answer 9

The word of the day "afeitado" is not "shaving". It is the past participle of afeitar (to shave). Example: "he afeitado" I have shaved.

Answer 10

This is strange. We live in an isolated community in British Columbia Canada. We pick our mail up at the post office because there is no rural delivery. Our mail is in a Postbox at the post office. All the people in the community have a key locked numbered Postbox. Our address must have this post box number on the envelope in order for us to get our mail. Where we used to live in a more populated area we had "mail boxes" these were on the side of the road and the mail person would put your mail in your mail box at the end of the driveway. So as far as I can see it postbox is okay.

Word of the day "media"
The word "media" translated as "mean" was very confusing. It made no sense and should have been put in a context form to more define the meaning.

Answer 11

I think of ladies stockings as medias & socks as calcetines.

Answer 12

I live in Puerto Rico and they speak a lot of spanglish but I live in a place with lots of Colombians and etc so I'm sure about this.

The word "medio" means "mean" but as in "a means to an end."

As for media - it means sock (panty hose, etc.) or media or half as well.

Answer 13

P.S. Median has other meanings in English, noticably the grass strip between the two sides of a divided highway, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Answer 14

Would this be a correct usage of the word media in this context?

Si tenemos 1, 3, 5, y 15, la media es 6, porque 1 + 3 + 5 + 15 = 24 y 24 / 4 = 6.
If we have 1, 3, 5, and 15, the average [arithmetic mean] is 6, because 1 + 3 + 5 + 15 = 24 and 24 / 4 = 6.

What is the correct word in Spanish for median? In the above list, you would take the middle two numbers (3 and 5) and average them, so the median would be 4.

In the following list, since it has an odd number of entries:

20 25 27 29 30 30 31

the median would be the middle number, 29.

median is also sometimes just referred to as "average" in English:

The average [median] income in this neighborhood is only about $25,000.

The book "How to Lie with Statistics" points out that some people also use "average" to mean the mode, or entry that occurs most frequently. Talk about confusing . . . and we haven't even discussed the geometric mean . . .

If you think I'm nuts -- I used to teach statistics -- can't help myself

Answer 15

So true . . . English is just as bad, some would say worse!