Because weekends are hard but I want to keep posting, here’s a snack-sized bit to enjoy with your Sunday morning tea/coffee/milk/CBD/whatever.
Sometimes, words in one language automatically look inappropriate in another, and today I give you the Spanish word… leer.
In English, it’s one syllable, and means to stare at someone inappropriately. “Don’t leer at me, dude.”
“He leered at her so much that she called HR.”
“Notice: Leering at patrons or artists is not accepted here.”
The word should also not be confused with the always proper noun Lear: “He landed his Lear Jet on Tuesday;” “The Bristol Cities Community production of ‘King Lear’ premiers on Thursday.”
In Spanish, “leer” is two syllables, and pronounced a lot like the English word “layer,” except with the emphasis on the second syllable: lay-AIR. In Spanish, it means “to read.”
It also happens to have a couple of variations by conjugation that, while pronounced differently, are spelled out lazy and without accents and look like other English words, mainly “leo”, the astrological sign; “lei” that Hawaiian airport gift thing; leia, that Star Wars princess; lea, where cows hang out; lean, how you like your meat; Lee, a common name.
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