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Today I Learned @lemmy.world

BarqsHasBite @lemmy.ca

1y ago

TIL the word "vamoose" is an Americanization of the Spanish word "vamos" for "let's go".

Obligatory vamoose you little varmint.

26 comments

One third of the real cowboys were Mexican, another third were Black. Cowboy was a terrible job, and they were mostly despised as "saddle tramps' until the sheep herder/cattle rancher wars. The ranchers, and later Wild West shows, played up the romance of the cowboy.
- We literally got the entire western film genre as a result.
  See the entire sub-plot of Oklahoma or McClintock for more details.
  
  Not an expert, but I'd bet that there were absolutely no TV or movie Westerns about a brave sheepherder.
  edit = Apparently, there was at least one, 'The Sheepman' with Glen Ford. Thanks to Capt. Wolf for the link.
  For a movie from [a slightly] Indian perspective, check out 'Little Big Man.'
  https://youtu.be/7K4l5ZZe4-k
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  Oklahoma
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

Ain't that pretty fucking obvious?
- TYL not everyone is well acquainted with Spanish.
- I am a fluent English speaker (in the US for a few decades) who knows Spanish (native speaker of Portuguese which also uses vamos), and thinks about etymology all the time - it never occurred to me lol. I just thought it was some weird old timey american thing lol
- In retrospect, yes, very.
- I thought it funniest that "vamoose" is even considered a separate thing and not just Americans using a Spanish word

Come on, vamonos, everybody let's go!

Same with "mosey," I think.
- 1829, "move off or away, get out," American English slang, of unknown origin, perhaps related to British dialectal mose about "go around in a dull, stupid way." Or perhaps from some abbreviation of Spanish vamos (see vamoose). Related: Moseyed; moseying.
  Seems a little long reach to vamos.

I think varmints are necessarily li'l, not little.

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
vamoose you little varmint.
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

No one tell them about "hoosegow".

Buckaroo, vaquero, vaccine!

Funny thing related to this: I've heard that the Chevy Nova (car) was put out for sale in Mexico. No one bought it because "Nova" = "No va" = no go. No one wanted the "no go" car.
- The Chevrolet Nova sold very well in Latin American markets; General Motors did not need to rename the car. While no va does mean "it doesn't go" in Spanish, nova was easily understood to mean "new".
  
  Thank you for spreading the good word
  
  Print the legend...

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