Thrashing it out
Since I wrote about living off past successes, laurels, rentals and suchlike, I have had a couple of suggestions about interesting expressions – people just seem to like certain turns of phrase, even though it’s difficult to say why. “Dále caña” is one I hear used a lot by members of my family, usually in connection with driving (where it is used to encourage the driver in front to put his foot down, instead of behaving like a Sunday driver, “dominguero”, and creeping along the motorway “pisando huevos”, walking on eggshells).
‘Caña’ must come from ‘cane’ and be something to do with beating and thrashing and generally stepping up one’s efforts. My English-speaking relatives are quite fond of saying “Give it some welly” in the same circumstances as the Spanish ones give it some ‘caña’.
And what about “el trapicheo que se trae”? I know what ‘trapicheo’ is – there’s quite a lot of this conniving wheeler-dealing funny business around right now, but I wonder where it came from?
And what about “moonlighting”? In Spanish you can have a “pluriempleo”, multiple jobs or some kind of clandestine employment, but where is the moonlight in that?
Any ideas, as always, gratefully received 
Filed under: Spanish language by Liz Parry
Hi, Liz,
I´m very fond of this kind of blog where a native speaker writes about the Spanish language. It´s an interesting contrastive article which helps me understand better the English language ( and sometimes the Spanish language ).
“Dale caña” is a phrase which I´ve used myself quite a lot and still use occasionally. As you say, I suppose it comes from using a cane to thrash something.
“el trapicheo que se trae” is very common too. I would translate it as “wheeling and dealing”. I haven´t got the foggiest where it comes from.
Obviously, there is no “moonlighting” in “pluriempleo” but I imagine that moonlighting can easily refer to having a day job and an evening job.
Well, I´m off. Esta semana el Málaga le va a dar caña al Athletic ( I hope ).
Dear Liz Parry,
It was good to find this kind of comment on line. I wonder if you or Francisco Javier Martín or other readers could help with the origins of the name ‘Costa Blanca’ – and its connection to other names given to the areas of the Spanish coastline. They may have come into international use because of tourism, but did they exist (before say the 1960s) in the minds of Spanish speakers?
The Costa del Azahar, the Orange Blossom Coast, from Gandia north to Valencia, the Costa Blanca from Denia/ Gandia south to Torrevieja, the Costa Calida south of Torrevieja, Costa Almeria, and the Costa del Sol are the major seaside tourist areas. Their names and their qualities overlap eg there are orange orchards( Costa de Azahar) in the northern Costa Blanca so it may be that the tourism industry invented the boundaries.(Costa Arroz would not have been as attractive as Costa Azahar would it? But south of Valencia are the rice paddies contributing to the area’s paellas). Is there any evidence that these names existed from earlier times, I wonder?
Costa Blanca could be so-called because of the ‘whitish’ cliffs from Denia southward to Calpe but they are not as white as those at Dover! Certainly there are small beaches backed by cliffs on extensive areas of the Northern Costa Blanca. Or could the name come from the colour of the sand? But isn’t it whitish almost everywhere on the Med coast? Could ‘white’ refer to the light of the high sun in a clear sky? Or the colour of the houses?
Two points: what is the white in Costa Blanca? Did the names exist before tourism?
I’m not sure who will read this message, but as a long-term resident of Japan, and longing to re-establish contact with a Vernon Hall who once lived here (in Takamatsu) I’m simply writing to ask whether the Vernon Hall who is blogging about the Costa Blanca might be the Vernon Hall once resident here.
If so, please get in touch!