Cola

[DailyWord]

This is a discussion thread for the Daily Spanish Word for March 4, 2009

cola - feminine noun (la) - tail, line. Look up cola in the dictionary

Muchos animales tienen cola.
Many animals have a tail.

[Jessica]

I believe it has NOTHING to do with Coca Cola.


What would line be referred to? What kind of line?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@jchen: "line" like in "standing in line"

"Hice una cola de 7 horas para comprar un iPhone" = "I stood in line 7 hours to buy an iPhone"

"Coca-cola" comes from an ingredient called "cola nut".

[laepelba]

I love my iPhone, but not so much that I'd wait in line for that long.

Seriously ... Jessica, I found "cola" once when I was looking up "queue". Do you ever use "queue" to talk about a line, like waiting in line for the roller coaster at an amusement park....

Another question ... previously, in another thread awhile back, when I was complaining about not being able to say my "r's" in Spanish (I still can't ... arrrgh!), someone gave me a trabalenguas that went something like this: "El Perro de San Roque no tiene rabo porque Ramón Ramirez se lo ha cortado." So, in this saying, isn't "rabo" a synonym with "cola" when used like in the sample sentence? Are there any subtle differences?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Lou Ann: "rabo" is the tail of four legged animals... "cola" is a more general term.
-> All "rabos" are "colas", but not all "colas" are "rabos".

[laepelba]

Ooooh ... I'm going to have to contemplate that one........... Hmm.... Can you use "cola" in a sentence where it would mean "tail" but could NOT be replaced with "rabo"?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

"Las lagartijas desprenden la cola cuando están en peligro" = "Lizards detach their tails when they're in danger"

[poli]

Listen to both words and the sound of the cola is finer than rabo.
An ox has a rabo but a monkey has a cola.
Also cola is a vernacular but not very vulgar way of saying butt.
Rabo is a very vulgar way of saying penis.

[Tomisimo]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Seriously ... Jessica, I found "cola" once when I was looking up "queue". Do you ever use "queue" to talk about a line, like waiting in line for the roller coaster at an amusement park....

I think "queue" is the British way of saying "line" that you wait in.

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by Tomisimo

I think "queue" is the British way of saying "line" that you wait in.

You know, though, I have found that I hear "queue" more and more often here in the US over the past few years. Like I have a "queue" of books I want to read - I'll say that such-and-such a book is "in the queue"....