¡Alto! Stop!

Question

Where does this word come from? I've never understood why you say:

Se detuvo a la puerta. / He stopped at the door.
Estaban parados en la calle. / They were stopped / standing in the street.
¡Dejen de hablar! / Stop talking!

--but if you want to just say "stop", it's "alto". (Maybe my brain is just hung up on the fact that alto means "high", but I thought I'd ask.)

Answer 1

That clears it up. Halt! ¡Alto!

Muchas gracias.

Answer 2

Marco said:

Hi Natasha, when you said "Dejen de hablar - Stop talking!", is "dejen" the imperative verb form of "dejar" or subjunctive verb form? I think it should be the imperative verb form even though it's the same for both imperative and subjunctive forms for thrid person plural.

Thank you,

Marco

In my English-thinking mind, I was using the "imperative" for the "ustedes" form of "you." But that might be a bit simplistic . . .

Answer 3

Marco said:

Hi Natasha, when you said "Dejen de hablar - Stop talking!", is "dejen" the imperative verb form of "dejar" or subjunctive verb form? I think it should be the imperative verb form even though it's the same for both imperative and subjunctive forms for thrid person plural.

You probably don't want to get into the specifics of the twisted grammatical nomenclature and taxonomy. Let's just say that the exclusively imperative forms only exists for "you", and for everything else, well... look why subjunctive can be used:

(Les ordeno que) dejen de hablar.
(Les pido que) dejen de hablar.
(Les ruego que) dejen de hablar.
(Les ordeno que) dejen de hablar.

Answer 4

Hi Natasha, when you said "Dejen de hablar - Stop talking!", is "dejen" the imperative verb form of "dejar" or subjunctive verb form?
I think it should be the imperative verb form even though it's the same for both imperative and subjunctive forms for thrid person plural.

Thank you,

Marco

Answer 5

CalvoViejo said:

I don't know about the rest of Colombia, but here in Bogotá the signs are ignored anyway. It doesn't seem to matter whether they say pare or alto. Bienafortunadmente, no es así con los semáforos.

As far as I know, "bienafortunadamente" doesn't exist (at least not in Spain), since "afortunadamente" already means "having good fortune". You have "bienaventurado", though, and I guess you could make an adverb out of it.

Answer 6

lazarus1907 said:

James is right: There is one "alto", from Latin "altus", meaning high, and another "alto", from German "halt" (borrowed in the 16th century), which is etymologically related to "hold", "accelerate" and "celebrity".I wish in Spain signs said "Pare", like in Colombia.

I don't know about the rest of Colombia, but here in Bogotá the signs are ignored anyway. It doesn't seem to matter whether they say pare or alto. Bienafortunadmente, no es así con los semáforos.

Answer 7

James is right: There is one "alto", from Latin "altus", meaning high, and another "alto", from German "halt" (borrowed in the 16th century), which is etymologically related to "hold", "accelerate" and "celebrity".

I wish in Spain signs said "Pare", like in Colombia.

Answer 8

James Santiago said:

Doesn't it share its etymology with the word halt?

I've always thought so.
P.S. We (English speakers) got it from German (Middle High German).

Answer 9

What I find to be funny is that if you go to Mexico, their stop sign says "Alto" but in Colombia it says "Pare." I don't know why that makes me chuckle.

Answer 10

Doesn't it share its etymology with the word halt'