Cynical / Cinico - Day Fifty One

when i was kid, my father and i would get into these long drawn out discussions of exactly what certain words meant, its definition, but more importantly, which one was more correct in ENGLISH or SPANISH. the word wars would at times reach a point where we'd be on the opposite ends of the spectrum, spitting things like "well! then it's probably wrong in SPANISH!" or vice-versa. can you imagine someone telling you that the word you've been using all your life was wrong because of another language's interpretation. it's by no coincide that this argument has been a sort of metaphor or sub-text for most of our fights.

the core of all these spats have always been based on interpretation.

this morning i had a word discovery based on these arguments while my mother and i looked up the translation for BRASS in a SPANISH CHILEAN dictionary. my curiosity on the interpretation of the word BRASS is based on its use in both language.

but the real word of the day is: CYNICAL / CINICO

what is also very appropriate about this is that both my father and i have been often accused of being cynical because of how critical we are. so when i was a kid and someone would call my father cynical in ENGLISH (CINICO in SPANISH), my father would have an internal up rise because of his interpretation of the word. he would get incredibly offended and roar with denial until whoever was calling him the word would back down. one of those people was of course me... and i am never one to back down from an argument.
!especially! at that age of 13.

so, while roaming through the dictionary for BRASS, i decided to look up CYNICAL in both languages with this CHILEAN-SPANISH dictionary.

result?

what if i was to tell you that my father's interpretation of the word is the result of how that word is used in ENGLISH? for example... if i say "all television is garbage!" then i would be cynical for saying that. the definition would describe me as "doubtful, distrustful, suspicious, disbelieving" but here in CHILE people often say that cynical is "someone who contradicts themselves by their actions, for examples; a promise they've made." for example if someone was to say "HEY TOM! nice to see you... lets have coffee soon!" now if that guy had a reputation of doing that and never calling, here in CHILE, your thoughts would be "that guy is so cynical, he's so full of shit!" something my father would say goes something like this: "ese huavon es mas CINCIO que la cresta!" so in this case, the person that was being "doubtful, distrustful, suspicious, disbelieving" is not the accuser but the person being accused.

after all of this, i mention this discovery to my very good friend EVAN CLARKE. after a lengthy discussion on the topic, he tells me that we were both right.

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EVAN: One way to think of it is like this: you can be cynical in your actions; or you can be cynical in your perception of other people's actions."

CARLO: you're right. you know what, honestly? i think when i was kid it had to do with my perception of my father. the way my father used it was with a country/working class tone. growing up, i always saw my father that way... not in a bad way but because of the way he expressed himself in both languages. i think that one of the reasons, possibly sub-consciously, i disagreed with him so strongly was because i was trying to assimulate and distance myself from his approach. having said that, i also thought that the word cynical was something of a positive thing to be called because it mean't you were critical.

EVAN: like something to be proud of?

CARLO: exactly. like how we saw music.

EVAN: yeah, i was really confused about it for a long time.
i see, like 'critical' or something.

CARLO: exactly

EVAN: like being cynical was something to be proud of. i guess that most people don't really think of cynicism as a reason for pride?

CARLO: i guess it was more the context and how people use it in CHILE. when he would say that word i would always cringe thinking about badly he misused it.
it so insane that i am discovering this now.

EVAN: it's not. it's understandable, given that you have two linguistic contexts to deal with. there's tons of words that i don't use in ENGLISH because i'm not crystal clear on their meaning.

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what i realized in the end was that ENGLISH puts more weight on the person criticizing as the CINIC and in CHILE people put more weight on the person being accused. in the end they both mean the same thing.



i can't believe it this whole time... we were both right.