this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
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[โ€“] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Fun fact about the etymology of "alligator:" When the Spanish first landed in what is now Florida, they found alligators and simply called them "el lagarto," which literally translates to "the lizard." While there were many reptiles in the swamps and bayous, only one was enough of a problem to be called "THE lizard," and after ~~several mistranslations~~ being borrowed into other languages, "el lagarto" morphed into "alligator"

Or at least that's what I read somewhere once.

[โ€“] Canadian_Cabinet@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

We still colloquially call them lagartos, regardless if its a crocodile or alligator.

[โ€“] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Good to know! I took years of Spanish classes and my kids are in a Spanish immersion school in California, but I've only ever heard lagarto for smaller lizards and cocodrilo for anything resembling crocodilians

Thanks for the info

[โ€“] Canadian_Cabinet@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 years ago

Yeah lagarto literally means lizard, but we use it for pretty much any type of reptilian that looks like a lizard lol