Concept in Definition ABC

If an Argentine or Uruguayan hears the word tormenting, he knows that it refers to a lazy, lazy person who likes to loiter. It can also refer to a marginal individual who does not have a life conventional, for example a tramp.

In countries like Republic Dominican or Coast Rich the term tormenting is used to mention someone with a messy life. On the other hand, in Venezuela this word is used to describe someone who behaves in a scandalous, vulgar or rude and a second meaning indicates that someone tormenting is arrogant and a pretentious.

From the above, we can gather two ideas:

1) We are facing an Americanism, because it is a word that is not used in the Spanish that is spoken in Spain and

2) is a derogatory and pejorative term.

The etymology debate

The etymology of the word is uncertain. In fact, there are conflicting versions about its true origin.

It is claimed that it may come from a plumbing manufacturer named Torrent and that he became a very popular character in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. There is a very similar version according to which the Buenos Aires sewer pipes were named after the manufacturer, A. Torrans. According to another

criterion etymological, tormenting could come from Catalan, since turrar means toast or burn and it is said that a person is torrada when he is suffocated by the sun and, therefore, is tired and downcast. There are scholars of the language who affirm that tormenting is a word typical of the River Plate lunfardo, a hypothesis quite reasonable if we take into account that this word appears in the lyrics of some tangos.

The problem of some etymologies and the use of foreign words

The controversy of the etymology of the tormenting term reminds us of a reality: it is not easy decide with absolute certainty the origin of the words. The vocabulary in Spanish comes mainly from Greek and Latin. However, a language is a living and changing entity and, consequently, is influenced by other languages, whose words have their own etymologies.

In Spanish we use terms of French origin (such as acne, affaire or bombón), from Italian (a cappella, watercolor, crescendo or cornet), from German (toast, fief or homosexual) and, of course, from English (club, football, link and many others). The use of foreign words supposes an enrichment of the language, a way to broaden its horizons and to assume new forms of expression.

Photos: iStock - Leonardo Patrizi / Voyagerix

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