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Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

Merienda

English translation:

afternoon snack

Added to glossary by Jenni Lukac (X)
Mar 25, 2011 20:56
13 yrs ago
14 viewers *
Spanish term

Merienda

Spanish to English Science Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc. Adolescent eating behavio
SPAIN. From a survey on teenage eating habits. I have consulted the glossary entries but IMO this is a still a hardy perennial. I am considering "Teatime" but perhaps it's too UK? (I don't fancy anything with "snack" as it comes under "Between Meals" in my draft version: Breakfast, Recreation, Lunch, Teatime, Supper, Between Meals)...
The headings in Spanish are:
"Desayuno, Recreo, Comida, Merienda, Cena, Entrehoras".
Proposed translations (English)
4 +8 afternoon snack
5 snack
3 afternoon break
Change log

Mar 25, 2011 21:02: Travelin Ann changed "Term asked" from "Merienda (in this context)" to "Merienda"

Mar 31, 2011 09:13: Jenni Lukac (X) Created KOG entry

Discussion

neilmac (asker) Mar 31, 2011:
I've recently been asked to help out with some wikipedia editing and advising, but am wary because I get very angry at sweeping statements about what is archaic/obsolete/somehow inferior to the supposed "acceptable current version" ( which usually turns out to be translatlantic) and doubt if I could hold my tongue as propriety demands. My style guide is basically me, my mother and native-speaker professional friends from both sides on the pond.
Jenni Lukac (X) Mar 31, 2011:
"Towards" always puts me in a quandry when a client asks me for British or "European" English. I know it's considered archaic by an increasing number of British style guides, but I use it. Although American style guides say no, no, no, Americans continue to use it interchangeably with toward. The same thing goes for round and around.
Charles Davis Mar 31, 2011:
@Neil If you're ever looking for volunteers for direct action in defence of "towards", count me in. Bloody Wikipedia!
neilmac (asker) Mar 31, 2011:
Very interesting discussion which I'd like to be able to take further at some point in future, having found that wikipedia defines "towards" as being obsolete if it has that telltale final "s". I for one will not be willing swept into the "quaint and archaic " drawer along with the sliced porridge and deely-boppers ta very much. Cue theme tune from "Bienvenido Mr Marshall"...
JMH Languages Mar 28, 2011:
Hi Muriel. Maybe your comment was poorly expressed as you say, or maybe it was 'poorly understood' by me! I certainly didn't take it as xenophobia. My only point was that the discussion itself is quite interesting - and once again, I agree with you re. the original question (whatever that was). I only entered the discussion to point out that 'tea' can mean very different things, even here in the UK, and so obviously (imo) would not be appropriate here. Apologies for any misunderstanding.
Muriel Vasconcellos Mar 27, 2011:
JMH & others I fear that my comment was poorly expressed, as it seems to have been taken literally - and xenophobically. I was only trying to make the ponit that to an American ear the term wouldn't work and, as I have already said, I believe that translations should be culturally neutral for the simple reason that communication falters when it isn't smooth and comfortable. Notice how much discussion there has been over this term and how far away we have wandered from the original question - to me, that's a sign that 'tea' and 'teatime' are not successful choices for a translation in this case.
This was not in any way intended as a comment on British culture. I have many friends in the UK, have traveled there quite a bit, and have had tea more times than I could possibly count. And I was raised by a Scottish grandmother who considered herself a British subject.
JMH Languages Mar 27, 2011:
Muriel It sounds alien to you because (apparently) it IS alien to you. Does that make the discussion any less valid? I know that I'm always interested to hear how people in different parts of the world use English. That doesn't stop me agreeing with you that the more neutral term 'snack' should be used in this case - since even in the British context, 'tea' can mean many different things. I can assure you all that the term 'tea' in Liverpool has very little in common with Jane Austen.
Charles Davis Mar 27, 2011:
Altogringo Thanks for the information. "Hump" in the sense of "carry" is marked as British in some dictionaries, though I now see that Oxford marks it as "chiefly British informal". Perhaps I'd better stop telling that story! As for fag, it's certainly still current and I would say it remains the most common slang term for a cigarette in Britain, though of course you hear it much less now that so many people have stopped smoking. Some people call cigarettes "tabs".
Altogringo Mar 27, 2011:
@Charles, people in the U.S. use hump in that way, for instance about a band humping their own gear, etc., and I doubt many people think it has any particularly vulgar connotation any more. I am surprised that fag for cigarette is still common usage.
Muriel Vasconcellos Mar 27, 2011:
@Marian I am certainly aware that the British have tea in the afternoon. My point, perhaps not clear, was that for translations aimed at general audiences we usually try, when possible, to use terminology that is culturally neutral.
Marian Vieyra Mar 27, 2011:
Teatime @Muriel
Aren't we all here to improve our knowledge of other people's cultures and languages? American English has evolved with the cultural habits of the immigrants who've gone there with a lot being lost and a lot being gained. No need to be shocked that the mother tongue as spoken in the motherland has a different way of saying things. As the Irish dramatist, George Bernard Shaw observed: "England and America are two countries separated by a common language".
Altogringo Mar 27, 2011:
I'm with Muriel.
Charles Davis Mar 27, 2011:
@Muriel I understand your feelings. There are times when the differences between American and British usage seem vast. There are certainly notorious ways unwary British speakers can create an unfortunate impression in the States. Forgive the vulgarity, but I can't resist quoting two, the first a real cliché and the second a genuine example from a friend of mine: "enjoying a quiet fag" and "humping your suitcases all the way from the station". These are perfectly innocent expressions in British English.
Jenni Lukac (X) Mar 27, 2011:
It's really localized (although the localization stretches from Derby to Delhi). Given the fact that snack is recognizable to British speaking readers and teatime sounds like something out of a Jane Austen novel to speakers of American English, I think that snack is inevitably the way to go in translating for a general audience.
Muriel Vasconcellos Mar 27, 2011:
Frm the other side of the Pond . . . This entire discussion sounds as if it's coming from another planet. Never in a million years would an American speak of "teatime" or having tea in the afternoon. It sounds totally, toally alien.
Charles Davis Mar 27, 2011:
@Jenni I love "lonely mouth"! This is all making me very nostalgic (not to mention a bit peckish). This use of "tea" for an early evening meal was not unknown in the south when I was young. I certainly remember the expression "high tea", which was a cooked meal (or at least some sandwiches) rather than just tea or milk and biscuits, or whatever. We had "supper" at about 7.30, as I recall. Nowadays some people use the word to mean a light snack taken late, before bedtime. Maybe it was a class thing (that English obsession), with early tea as a more proletarian habit. My family, though not especially prosperous, was middle-class.
Nowadays, like you, and like most Spanish people, I eat more at lunchtime than in the evening. When I'm back home in England I tend to find lunch disconcertingly small (and early). When I worked in England I used to take about half an hour for lunch and usually just grabbed a sandwich and a bit of fruit. I think the Spanish way is better, though of course things have changed here to some extent.
Jenni Lukac (X) Mar 27, 2011:
Thank you Charles! This is worth a study. Many years ago on a weekend visit with an English family, I came to understand this difference in practices. When I went to England as a student, I was accostumed to the "sweet tooth" type of teatime I had shared with my grandparents. When my host family produced "tea" in the afternoon I ate very little, thinking that supper would be served later. No supper was ever mentioned and I went to bed starving - and this was in the south of England. Ironically, my Spanish husband and I tend to eat well midday and then only eat a bit of fruit and cheese around 7 pm, which must be a mishmash of cultural urges and customs. I'm wondering what this really is, in English terms. We refer to it as "pica pica"- which doesn't figure on Neil's chart. All this reminds me of a hilarious article a colleague living in Southeast Asia wrote about eating habitats in Laos and Vietnam. Describing his wife's habit of (shall we say snacking or not?) throughout the day, he noted that her explanation for this practice could be attributed to "lonely mouth".
Charles Davis Mar 27, 2011:
There's a whole sociolinguistic study in this. First, I'm with Marian: the meal is tea, you have it at teatime, and tea breaks are taken at work (by manual workers; generally white collar workers have coffee breaks). Tea breaks can be taken in the morning as well as the afternoon, and you don't necessarily drink tea.
But JMH is dead right: in the north of England, tea is the main evening meal, traditionally consumed pretty early, when the men got home from the factory (when there still were factories, that is). When I was a lad (in London) the midday meal was called dinner; only very posh people called it lunch. This is still true in the north, though in the south everyone calls it lunch nowadays, and dinner is the evening meal (everyone I knew called it supper back then). But even in the south you still talk about school dinners, and dinner ladies (does anyone say "lunch ladies"?). All this refers to England, I hasten to add. What do they say in Scotland, Neil?
Marian Vieyra Mar 27, 2011:
Re: tea break Hi Jenni, a tea break is something you have at work, particularly in factories, whereas teatime is somehow related to being at home.
Jenni Lukac (X) Mar 27, 2011:
Marian has an interesting point. I had an English boss who talked about "the lads and their tea break" (although the lads in question were more apt to drink Coca-Cola or beer), whereas he didn't use the word "teatime" - perhaps because the break didn't fall within what he considered "teatime". I actually do prepare a cup of tea around teatime, but I drink it while I work and resist rounding it off with a nibble. As I wrote this, it occured to me that "entrehoras" could refer to nibbling.
Marian Vieyra Mar 27, 2011:
Re: teatime See the macho pursuits of anglers meeting up around 'teatime' which refers to an actual time of day - between 4 and 5.30 I'd say. Quaint it ain't.

http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1597...
JMH Languages Mar 26, 2011:
Just wanted to point out that, although I'm British, tea time sounds wrong to me too. Tea, maybe, but 'tea time' for me, would refer simply to WHEN you may (or may not) have your tea, not to the 'meal/snack' itself. Otherwise, you would have to say breakfast time, lunchtime, dinnertime etc. Of course, things are further complicated, since for some of us living in northern England (well, for most of us if I'm honest), tea (which doesn't necessarily involve a cup of tea)is actually dinner, and dinner is lunch! In short, I'd go with afternoon snack.
neilmac (asker) Mar 26, 2011:
No disrespect taken. I am well aware of the impression some UK English terms have on our US or Ozzy cousins (et al), or even the distinct usage between social classes in UK, which is why I'm asking this. It looks like some form of "snack" may be unavoidable if the text is for a worldwide audience. Thanks to everyone for the useful comments!
Charles Davis Mar 25, 2011:
"Merienda" is definitely a scheduled meal in Spain, at least for children. Mine have it at about 5.30. Otherwise you can hardly expect them to last till dinner, which is at 8.30-9.00. If the translation is strictly for the UK, I'd say it's tea (I usually say something like "come on, tea's ready", although their merienda never includes tea as such). For a more general target, I think Jenni's "afternoon snack" is best.
Lydia De Jorge Mar 25, 2011:
Most nutritionists recommend 3 meals a day and 2-3 snacks. This is why I consider a snack to be a scheduled 'meal'. Anything one eats outside of these is considered 'between meals'. IMO
Jenni Lukac (X) Mar 25, 2011:
It's a more or less a scheduled time to eat, in terms of it's being a "break". In offices, it functions like tea break/coffee break. In schools, it's usually a little sandwich, but once they are old enough, kids eat it on the run. If they are left to their own devices, it's junk food. To the average Spaniard, a sandwich is not a real meal (ay, the rub). That's why I stuck with snack, thinking that it could be finessed with "main morning/afternoon snack" and later "intermittent/light/casual/between-meal snack" etc. "teatime" does seem awfully quaint to me, but I know it isn't for many people. Maybe someone with young kids will weigh in on this issue...
Altogringo Mar 25, 2011:
Well, actually not a scheduled meal, technically.
Altogringo Mar 25, 2011:
I think you'll have a hard time avoiding snack, although now that I think about Lydia's comment, I do realize merienda is a scheduled meal. But I bet the food consumed is the same as entrehoras.
Teatime sounds really quaint and archaic to me. I'm from the U.S. and I bet anyone who saw that there (especially teenagers eating the merienda) would lol. No disrespect, just trying to contribute. If you need to establish the time aspect, I would go with Jenni's.
Lydia De Jorge Mar 25, 2011:
I deleted my answer (snack) because you state you don't want to use the term and yet I don't think merienda and entrehoras is the same thing. A merienda (snack) is a scheduled meal while entrehoras is random. Teatime is most definitely for UK.

Proposed translations

+8
10 mins
Selected

afternoon snack

I had teatime with my English grandparents, but it was light years from modern habits in Spain. I go with Jamie Oliver who has a great interest in the subject:
25 May 2010 ... Jamie Oliver thinks we do. And with 7 out of 10 Americans overweight or ... filed in: under 200 calories, afternoon snack, sweet, healthy, ...
www.snack-girl.com/snack/parmesan-corn/ - En caché
#
Healthy Snacks for Growing Kids an Oxymoron? | Hot Cookin'
- [ Traducir esta página ]
15 Feb 2010 ... After a good lunch, I sometimes make a smoothie for the kids. Of course, there is at least one, sometimes two afternoon snacks. ...
www.hotcookin.net/.../healthy-snacks-for-growing-kids-an-ox... - En caché
#
Healthy Fruit Dips for Kids | Green and Clean Mom ™
My kids love fruit but I find that like most things fruit can get boring ... Recipes for Healthy Snacks · Swiss Spinach Snack and Jamie Oliver ... Add it with the dip and you have the perfect lazy afternoon snack for everyone to enjoy. ...
greenandcleanmom.org/healthy-fruit-dips-for-kids/ - En caché - Similares

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 11 mins (2011-03-25 21:07:24 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

#
Jamie Oliver - Forums / Packing Kids Lunches - beta
- [ Traducir esta página ]
I would mix it up with different types of fruit, Apples are an easy snack ...
www.jamieoliver.com › Home › Food and Wine - En caché
#
Jamie's Bloggers / Need help with snack ideas for an inner city camp
- [ Traducir esta página ]
1 entrada - Última entrada: 20 Abr 2010
... one counselor assigned per day to prepare for the afternoon snack. ...
www.jamieoliver.com/bloggers/viewtopic.php?id=61110 - En caché
Mostrar más resultados de jamieoliver.com
Peer comment(s):
agree Coralia Polanco
28 mins
Cheers and thanks, Coralia.
agree Ellen Kraus : that´s what I would say, too.
43 mins
Cheers and thanks, Ellen. The favorite merienda in Zaragoza is a giant "palmera" coated with chocolate - Jaime Oliver's nightmare.
agree Charles Davis : To me it's tea (whether or not you actually drink tea), and you have it at teatime, but I agree that's very British. For a more general audience, this is probably best.
56 mins
Thanks, Charles. This discussion is bringing back childhood memories of when I thought (perhaps rightly so) that I was the only kid in New York who observed teatime. I thought it was a bit Victorian; my friends thought it was Gothic...
agree MedTrans&More : to me as well it's teatime (and I'm 25!) but afternoon snack is a bit more international
1 hr
Thanks, MedTrans.
agree Catherine Gilsenan
1 hr
Thanks, Catherine.
agree kalungo
1 hr
Thanks, kalungo.
agree Victoria Frazier
7 hrs
Thanks, Victoria. Have a nice weekend.
agree Marian Vieyra : In the UK my kids have an afternoon/afterschool snack at teatime, which the same time as merienda - 4-5 p.m. Nothing Twilighty going on at all!
1 day 11 hrs
Thanks, Marian. This question has brought back my afternoon sweet tooth! Have a nice weekend.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "I was dragged into this kicking and screaming. Try offering Glasgow kids a yogurt at teatime and see their reaction. Thanks to all for the nourishing input :)"
48 mins

afternoon break

You could say this. It would parallel with 'lunch' and 'supper' and free up 'snacks' for 'between-meal snacks'. How about:

breakfast
morning break
lunch
afternoon break
supper
between-meal snacks

Examples:

Afternoon Break Selections. Afternoon Tea. Assortment of Scones, Freshly Baked Shortbread Cookies & Sliced Seasonal Fresh Fruit and Berries. ...
fishershospitalitycc.com/menu_after.html

Morning/Afternoon Break French-English Vocabulary / Vocabulaire Français-Anglais. How would you describe the breaks in lessons in schools specifically in the morning or afternoon... could you use pause du matin and pause d'après-midi?
forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=176890

Oct 19, 2010 ... Afternoon Break. Students can hangout in the Campus Center and eat a snack or buy a snack for afternoon activities ...
overlake.intand.com/index.php?type=view&action=event&id=6062

As the sponsor of the Afternoon Break, your company receives special recognition on the event schedule, programs, and signage. ...
www.azchiefsofpolice.org/store.php?crn=230&rn=448...

Home > Catering > Mid-Afternoon Break · Catering · Polices · Mid-Afternoon Break · Afternoon · Dinners · Sweet Endings/Desert. Mid Afternoon Break ...
www.maddchefs.com/catering/mid-afternoon-break

Afternoon Break with Snacks in Expo Hall. 35min. Friday 03:25pm, Centennial IV. TBA. # Permalink · made with django . powered by mod_wsgi. ...
us.pycon.org/2010/conference/schedule/event/43/ -

Something went wrong...
2 hrs

snack

This is the term used for any "meal" between breakfast and lunch, and lunch and dinner and after dinner. I'm in USA. For example, my evening snack is a yogurt.
Note from asker:
Problem is that "tea" in UK can be the main meal of the day for some people/most schoolkids, and a skinny yogurt, as you say, is just a snack. Watch this space...
Something went wrong...
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