When I took Spanish in school, socks were calcetines. The Chicago White Sox, however, in their Spanish-language promotional materials, render the name of the team as “Los Medias Blancas”.
Does anyone know why? Also, why does an apparently feminine noun take the masculine article?
It looks like medias means tights or hose, which makes sense, given that both the Cubs and Sox were originally named the Chicago White Stockings.
As to the gender of the noun, it’s possible that it’s because they are all guys, but language doesn’t usually try to be that logical.
According to my trusty Western Hemisphere Spanish-English dictionary, medias is the preferred term for “stockings,” although calcetines is also correct.
As for “los” my guess is that they simply preferred to use a masculine article when referring to a team of men, but I have no cite.
The term medias means socks in America, women’s stockings or panty hose in Spain. From “media pierna,” lit “half leg,” as that’s the length they originally had.
If these guys ever go pay-to-read I’ll have a problem :). Definition 2.
The guesses for “los” provided by previous posters are correct.
Yet the Mexican soccer team “Las Chivas” not only suffers from being “las,” but also from being a bunch of young girl goats. So much for the macho Mexican culture thing.
(I’m told the name is because they “run like chivas” and doesn’t reflect their masculinity.)
The Ford Fiesta in Spanish-speaking countries is “el Fiesta,” even though a real fiesta would be “la fiesta.” But since it’s “el coche” or “el carro,” we get “El Fiesta.” So they try to be a little logical sometimes.
“Medias” is short for “medias calzas” (half tights as opposed to full tights). Stockings are “half tights”.
Ah, thank you–I had only known medio/media as a noun or adjective meaning “half”, and was wondering how (or if) it got associated with socks. That explains it.
The name of the Chicago White Sox, when put into Spanish language media is “Chicago White Sox”. It’s a proper name, which generally should not be translated. Unless you think that in English the name of the team is “Wild leek/skunk White Socks”.
Yeah, but since they have decided to translate it themselves… it’s similar to when Marvel or Blizzard decide to butcher their own brand names. They own the brand, they can call it whatever they want to in any language.
sailor, if I walk into a store in Spain and ask for medias, the shopkeeper will ask “¿cortas o enteras?” (cortas are knee length, enteras is full pantyhose) I do know the origin is “medias calzas” (even if I hadn’t known it previously, it’s in the RAE article), but that’s not what it means in current everyday usage in Spain. Promise.
In Mexican Spanish (and I dare say, US Spanish media [Univision, etc.]), they names are almost invariably translated. “Los Leones.” “Los Medias Blancas.” “Los Pistones.” “Los Bengaleses.”
I’ve personally never heard how they translate “the Red Wings” – I usually just “the Red Wings” with as Mexican an accent as I can manage. A quick web search does turn up references to “Alas Rojas,” but not from any recognized media source.
I was talking about the origin of the name, not about current usage.
I will also remind everyone that sex and gramatical gender are totally different things and gramatical gender has nothing to do with sex but is a gramatical evolution of the language. So don’t ask why a door is female because it isn’t. It is feminine which is a different thing.
In my occasional watching of Univision and other Spanish-language futbol coverage, I mostly recall team names not being translated (well, ‘los’ instead of ‘the’). “Los Fire” for the Chicago MLS team, etc.
So to get pantyhose in Spain, you ask for “full halves”? What were ‘calzas enteras’ back in the day?
Calzas were medieval tights like pantyhose. “Medias calzas” were stockings. This ended up being shortened to “medias”.
Calzar meant to put on calzas, through the feet, so in the end “calzado” ended up meaning “shoes”.
No, this is not correct. Look at the website. The are called Los White Sox in all the menus and links. “Pale Hose” is a common nickname used in English papers (similar to ChiSox and South-Siders) and these translated new articles are simply translating the authors’ lingo.
The Spanish translation for Chicago White Sox is Chicago White Sox. Nicknames are another story and are the province of the journalists and/or the translator.
This is a matter of usage and opinion. A century ago the custom was more to translate names so that New York became Nueva York and John became Juan. The trend has been that fewer names are translated but this is still just a trend and many names are still translated. I could argue this issue round or flat.
The Spanish speaking press is back on forth on this. In my general experience in Mexico and in Spanish-speaking US television, teams names are translated. Current, topical Google News examples:
Mexico Example 1
Mexico Example 2
However moving on to Venezuela…
Venezuela Example (We see that they don’t translate the names.)
Now checking the Univision website, it would appear they don’t translate:
Univision example
I’d’ve sworn they did, but home market, so it makes sense that they don’t.
There are even national inconsistencies: here’s another Venezuelan example where the teams names are translated.
FWIW, any time I speak with my in-laws in Mexico, they invariably speak with the translated names.
They call their own website http://www.loswhitesox.com
In my experience, watching a lot of US baseball with Spanish commentary and reading newspapers in Spanish here in Panama, the team names are almost always translated (except for names like the Mets or Phillies).
The one I always find amusing is Los Cachorros for the Chicago Cubs. Cachorros does in fact mean “cubs,” but also means “puppies.” Whenever I hear it, I think of them as “The Chicago Puppies,” which perhaps is apt.
Here’s ESPN’s list of team names. Most are translated, with the exception of those where a literal translation wouldn’t work very well, like the Dodgers and Rockies.
Orioles de Baltimore
Bravos de Atlanta
Medias Rojas de Boston
Nacionales de Washington
Yankees de Nueva York
Mets de Nueva York
Rays de Tampa Bay
Filis de Filadelfia
Azulejos de Toronto
Marlins de la Florida
Medias Blancas Chicago
Cerveceros de Milwaukee
Indios de Cleveland
Cachorros de Chicago
Tigres de Detroit
Rojos de Cincinnati
Reales de Kansas City
Astros de Houston
Mellizos de Minnesota
Piratas de Pittsburgh
Cardenales de San Luis
Angelinos de Los Angeles
Dodgers de Los Angeles
Atléticos de Oakland
Padres de San Diego
Marineros de Seattle
Gigantes de San Francisco
Vigilantes de Texas
Rockies de Colorado
Diamondbacks de Arizona
I particularly like the Texas Vigilantes.
That list is how I grew up learning the baseball teams in Puerto Rico. Some of them were translated, some of them were not. Same with other sport teams, some were translated, some were not.