{"id":23952,"date":"2025-03-19T18:04:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T18:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23952"},"modified":"2025-03-19T18:04:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T18:04:20","slug":"breeze-stoppers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23952","title":{"rendered":"Breeze-Stoppers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the words that came up in my Spanish lessons today was <strong>limpiaparabrisas<\/strong>, which means <strong>windscreen \/ windshield wiper<\/strong>, and struck me as a relatively rare multi-word compound in Spanish.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hernanpc\/7129642215\/in\/photolist-bS2heM-2FRtNM-dqPMLb-NXsDxa-e3vj8B-GAh87\" title=\"Wiper\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/7071\/7129642215_a700f7f728_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" alt=\"Wiper\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Unlike the Germanic languages*, Spanish doesn&#8217;t seem to have a lot of words like <strong>limpiaparabrisas<\/strong> made up of several words joined together, at least that&#8217;s my impression. It&#8217;s made up of <strong>limpia<\/strong>, from <strong>limpiar<\/strong> (to clean, wash, wipe), and <strong>parabrisas<\/strong> (windscreen, windshield), which is made up of <strong>para<\/strong>, from <strong>parar<\/strong> (to stop), and <strong>brisas<\/strong> (breezes) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/limpiaparabrisas\">source<\/a>]. A related word is <strong>lavaparabrisas<\/strong> (screen wash, windshield washing fluid) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/lavaparabrisas#Spanish\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>*For example, in German there are words such as:  <strong>Grundst\u00fccksverkehrsgenehmigungszust\u00e4ndigkeits\u00fcbertragungsverordnung<\/strong> (Regulation on the delegation of authority concerning land conveyance permissions), and <strong>Rindfleischetikettierungs\u00fcberwachungsaufgaben\u00fcbertragungsgesetz<\/strong> (Beef labeling supervision duties delegation law), which are of course used in everyday conversation. If not, they should be [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/mesa#Spanish\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Spanish does have plenty of words made up of a stem plus prefixes and\/or suffixes, or compounds of two words. For example, the word <strong>mesa<\/strong> means table, desk, bureau or committee. Related words with affixes include <strong>mesero<\/strong> (waiter), <strong>mesilla<\/strong> (bedside table, stall), and <strong>mesita<\/strong> (small table). Related compound words include <strong>sobremesa<\/strong> (tablecloth, desktop) and <strong>tornamesa<\/strong> (turntable, record player) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/mesa#Spanish\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Other two-word compounds in Spanish include <strong>abrebotellas<\/strong> (bottle opener), <strong>cortarc\u00e9sped<\/strong> (lawn mower), <strong>cortafuego<\/strong> (firewall), <strong>lavaplatos<\/strong> (dishwasher), <strong>portaaviones<\/strong> (aircraft carrier), <strong>quitamanchas<\/strong> (stain remover), <strong>sacacorchos<\/strong> (corkscrew) and <strong>salvavidas<\/strong> (life jacket) [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spanishmarks.com\/blog\/compound-words-spanish\/\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>In fact, <strong>limpiaparabrisas<\/strong> and <strong>lavaparabrisas<\/strong> are really two-word compounds, but look like three-words compounds. So, maybe they&#8217;re not that unusual.<\/p>\n<p>Do you know of any interesting multi-word compounds in Spanish or other languages?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the words that came up in my Spanish lessons today was limpiaparabrisas, which means windscreen \/ windshield wiper, and struck me as a relatively rare multi-word compound in Spanish. Unlike the Germanic languages*, Spanish doesn&#8217;t seem to have a lot of words like limpiaparabrisas made up of several words joined together, at least [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,116,10,64,78],"tags":[164,158,138,368,281,318,163],"class_list":["post-23952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-german","category-language","category-spanish","category-words-and-phrases","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-language","tag-limpiaparabrisas","tag-omniglot","tag-spanish","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23954,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23952\/revisions\/23954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}