Espejear

[DailyWord]

This is a discussion thread for the Daily Spanish Word for September 9, 2009

espejear (verb) — to look in the mirror, watch the mirror, check the mirror. Look up espejear in the dictionary

Vengo espejeando y veo que tiene 10 minutos que Jetta blanco nos sigue.
I've been watching the mirror and I see that that white Jetta has been following us for 10 minutes.

[irmamar]

¿Espejear? Mejor: mirarse al espejo. Espejear is not used, in Spain at least. And about the sentence, I'd say:

Llevo un rato mirando por el retrovisor (supongo que van en coche) y veo que ese Jetta blanco hace 10 minutos que nos sigue.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Ouch! This is rather a neologism, and it refers either to the use of the rear veiw mirror of the car when driving, or when there is a situation that reflects your own.
I would really prefer it weren't used at all.

¿Viste cómo maneja ese tipo? Ni siquiera espejea antes de cambiarse de carril.
Did you see how that guy drives? He doesn't even check the mirror before changing lanes.

Juan siempre está enojado. No me gusta encontrarme con él porque nos espejeamos. (Somos iguales)
Juan is always angry. I don't like meeting him because we mirror each other. (We're much alike)

[poli]

In English the verb to mirror is commonly used.

To mirror someone is to imitate their movement.
Example: Look how those twins mirror each other.

I like the Spanish word espejismo.

[chileno]

Espejear means to shine as a mirror. I had not heard of this word in more than 30 years...

Here is the link to RAE's definition: http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltCons...&LEMA=espejear

[ookami]

It sounds so ugly and strange

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by ookami

It sounds so ugly and strange

I agree. But it's very common when driving here.

[Jessica]

does the mirror have to be a real mirror? It can't be your reflection in the water? I think it has to be a real mirror.......

[EmpanadaRica]

Originally Posted by poli

In English the verb to mirror is commonly used.

To mirror someone is to imitate their movement.
Example: Look how those twins mirror each other.

Again, poli I thought the same thing..
But I suppose 'to mirror' i.e. to imitate would be imitar a alguien?

In Dutch we also say 'zich spiegelen aan' (mirror = spiegel, which sounds remarkably like 'espejo' by the way so this might be another linguistic remnant of Spanish in Dutch, although in fact it also exists in German).
It's not really to imitate someone (literally) but more to aspire to be someone, to use someone as an example or 'rolemodel' to live up to so to speak. What would be a good equivalent for that in Spanish?

[ookami]

Yes, to mirror = imitar / copiar (better the first)

espejo viene del latin especulum, y tiene -según acabo de leer- una base indogermánica.

Hmm, a good equivalent to zich spiegelen aan? maybe if you try to translate it into English I can give you a more accurate translation. Reading your description I imagine:
tomar a alguien como modelo
querer ser como alguien
aspirar a ...
seguir el ejemplo de
You have to describe it, there isn't a single word (at least I can't come up with anyone) that says that. You can use imitar too, but it depends if the context explain what kind of imitation it is, if not it's going to be not too accurate as a translation.