A Paso de Formiga

Bert45 · Nov 13, 2021

"A Paso de Formiga" is the name of an albergue/hostel in Portos, about 6 km east of Palas de Rei. Do you know what this means? Perhaps you think you do, but you could be wrong. If you think it means "The Pass of the Ant", you are definitely wrong. It puzzled me because 'paso' is obviously masculine, but 'a' is the feminine definite article, so "a paso" cannot mean "the pass". 'Paso' has several meanings, including 'step' and 'pace', which has two meanings in English and it has the same two meanings in Galician: another word for 'step', as in two paces forward; and 'speed', as in keep pace with somebody. So I emailed the albergue/hostel to find out what the name means. It means "At (the) pace of (an) ant" i.e. slowly. I think that ants move quite fast, considering their size, but everyone's entitled to an opinion. It's an idiom. They can also say, with the same meaning, "A paso de tortuga". "A paso de caballo" means fast. 'A' means 'at' as well as 'the'. Btw, 'formiga' is Galician for 'ant'; in Spanish it's 'hormiga'
I've asked why the albergue/hostel is called "Slowly", but I haven't had a reply.
You're welcome!

jungleboy · Nov 13, 2021

Thanks for this little story.

Bert45 said:
Btw, 'formiga' is Galician for 'ant'; in Spanish it's 'hormiga'

This is a result of a sound shift (and consequent spelling change from f to h) in old Spanish, especially at the beginning of words, which did not occur in Galego or Portuguese. Apart from formiga/hormiga, there are other cognate words with this difference in Portuguese/Spanish like filho/hijo (child), formosa/hermosa (beautiful), falar/hablar (to speak) etc. It can also occur in the middle of words but this is rarer, e.g. almofada/almohada (pillow).

mspath · Nov 13, 2021

Bert45 said:
"A Paso de Formiga" is the name of an albergue/hostel in Portos, about 6 km east of Palas de Rei. Do you know what this means? Perhaps you think you do, but you could be wrong. If you think it means "The Pass of the Ant", you are definitely wrong. It puzzled me because 'paso' is obviously masculine, but 'a' is the feminine definite article, so "a paso" cannot mean "the pass". 'Paso' has several meanings, including 'step' and 'pace', which has two meanings in English and it has the same two meanings in Galician: another word for 'step', as in two paces forward; and 'speed', as in keep pace with somebody. So I emailed the albergue/hostel to find out what the name means. It means "At (the} pace of (an) ant" i.e. slowly. I think that ants move quite fast, considering their size, but everyone's entitled to an opinion. It's an idiom. They can also say, with the same meaning, "A paso de tortuga". "A paso de caballo" means fast. 'A' means 'at' as well as 'the'. Btw, 'formiga' is Galician for 'ant'; in Spanish it's 'hormiga'
I've asked why the albergue/hostel is called "Slowly", but I haven't had a reply.
You're welcome!

Bert45,
I trust that you have seen their 3d "sign"

David Tallan · Nov 13, 2021

jungleboy said:
Thanks for this little story.

This is a result of a sound shift (and consequent spelling change from f to h) in old Spanish, especially at the beginning of words, which did not occur in Galego or Portuguese. Apart from formiga/hormiga, there are other cognate words with this difference in Portuguese/Spanish like filho/hijo (child), formosa/hermosa (beautiful), falar/hablar (to speak) etc. It can also occur in the middle of words but this is rarer, e.g. almofada/almohada (pillow).

I am currently re-reading the Cantar del Mio Cid in an edition that has the original medieval Spanish and a facing page translation and I noticed the f/h difference between the medieval Spanish I was seeing and the modern Spanish I'm more familiar with.

Side note: If anyone is curious who the Condes were in Carrion de los Condes, this is the place to find out.

jungleboy · Nov 13, 2021

David Tallan said:
I am currently re-reading the Cantar del Mio Cid in an edition that has the original medieval Spanish and a facing page translation and I noticed the f/h difference between the medieval Spanish I was seeing and the modern Spanish I'm more familiar with.

I also found this when I worked with medieval Spanish for the Estoria de Espanna project. I saw words like 'fijo' and 'formosa' in the 13th/14th century manuscripts.

J.Patrick · Nov 14, 2021

jungleboy said:
This is a result of a sound shift (and consequent spelling change from f to h) in old Spanish, especially at the beginning of words, which did not occur in Galego or Portuguese. Apart from formiga/hormiga, there are other cognate words with this difference in Portuguese/Spanish like filho/hijo (child), formosa/hermosa (beautiful), falar/hablar (to speak) etc. It can also occur in the middle of words but this is rarer, e.g. almofada/almohada (pillow).

Wonderful information! "filius" becomes "filho" (or the Spanish equivalent of the Portuguese) becomes "hijo" -- Yes...I had wondered how that happened. Thank you!

w gangel · Nov 15, 2021

David Tallan said:
Side note: If anyone is curious who the Condes were in Carrion de los Condes, this is the place to find out

Was it Sid James and Hatty Jakes?

Bill905 · Nov 20, 2021

I stayed there in 2019. Because of the giant sculptures in the yard, I thought it translated as the Path of the Ants, particularly because of the lines of small ants that I kept noticing inside the albergue. I guess sometimes you just have to accept that ants will make their own way!

JeffParks · Nov 20, 2021

It is little known, but centuries ago the snails had their own camino. They only traveled to Santiago from
about 1 km out, but it still took them several months.

The tale is told of a group of snails that was set upon by a group of turtle bandits. The turtles beat
the snails and stole their equipment. The snails moved as quickly as they could to report
the assault to the Guardia Civil.

When the policeman asked the snails for a description of the bandits, they replied, "We really cannot say. It all happened so fast."

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A Paso de Formiga

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