The Word Puro w/Poll

[Texan in Mexico]

Ok, I wasnt going to add on but your post made me laugh.

One of the frustrating and beautiful qualities of Spanish is that each country, and many times each region within a country, uses the same word for different things or different words for the same thing.

Is it wrong for him to use the word "puro"? No, it is a marketing tool IMHO plain and simple.

For me a puro is a tobacco with all its parts from the same country.

I get to travel a bit through the Caribbean and Latin America for work and some places what we know as a cigar is referred to as puro, tobacco o cigarro.

It used to bug me but doesnt anymore...

En Mexico utilicen la palabra anillo de doble sentido como broma - ya sabes todo se puede convertir en doble sentido aqui! Jaja

Originally Posted by mariogolbee

The problem I see with the interpretations of how the word "puro" is used in this thread, as pertaining to cigars, is that you guys are trying to use a literal translation from Spanish to English. Anyone here who speaks Spanish can attest to this not always being possible. Being of Mexican AND Cuban ancestry, I have heard the word "puro" used in Spanish by Mexicans AND Cubans AND other Latino-Americanos to pertain to a cigar. If BOTL are going to say "marca" (which literally translated means mark) rather than "brand" to refer to a brand, then why try to change the word "puro?"

Since I have been into this hobby I have seen it widely accepted to use "Nic Puro," "Dominican Puro," etc. to refer to a cigar with all components being from a single country. This is a colloquialism and makes sense.

Elements of Style (which is on my shelf as I type this) is a wonderful little book and is, IMO, the be all-style-guide of the American English language, but not of the Spanish language. Native English speakers tend to hold the meaning and use of language by another people to their own. This is not purely linguistics, it is ethnocentrism.

I am in no way putting down my native language, American-English, in this thread. That is not my intent. I am simply attempting to demonstrate to you all that you are attempting to translate something incorrectly.

One last comment. "Anillo" means "ring" in Spanish. The root word, "ano" means "anus," but one would not literally translate this as "little anus" when placing an anillo on their wife's finger.

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