Friday, September 26, 2008
Lazarillo vs. El lazarillo
It's common enough to use El Lazarillo, or El Quijote when referring to the books, but I have students (mostly natives) who persist in saying "el Lazarillo" when referring to the character. This bespeaks to me a false etymology, i.e., that Lazarillo gets his name because he is a lazarillo (blind man's guide) when it is actually the other way around: lazarillo as a word denoting a child who guides a blind man derives from the book. Am I wrong about this?
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2 comments:
Sounds right to me (your etymology, that is, not the false one). Shandy is the one to ask.
This is curious because I have only seen students (and some critics) use "el Lazarillo" to refer to the book and not the character. In any case, the use of Lazarillo to describe a boy serving as guide for a blind man has its origin in the literary character himself (according to the dictionary of the RAE).
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