Leche

[DailyWord]

This is a discussion thread for the Daily Spanish Word for May 1, 2008

leche -feminine noun (la), milk. Look up leche in the dictionary

Yo me tomo un vaso de leche todas las mañanas.
I drink a glass of milk every morning.

[Alfonso]

It's really tempting to link this daily word, leche, to Jane's today post, el colmo, as:

• Es el colmo.
• Es la leche.

... mean the same, with the latter being vulgar, and the former not. Do you use it the same way in other Hispanic countries?

[poli]

Originally Posted by Alfonso

It's really tempting to think that today's daily leche and Jane's post about el colmo have the same meaning. daily word, leche, to Jane's today post, el colmo, as:

• Es el colmo.
• Es la leche.

with the later (pronounced ladder) being vulgar , the last vulgar and the former not. Do you use it the same way in other Hispanic countries?

Let's see what Rusty and David, Elaina, Gomey and the rest say, but I've never heard the the term es la leche before. In Spain can it be used negatively and positively as colmo is?

You probably know that leche alone is quite vulgar here. In English
cream is, but it's only vulgar as a verb.

[Alfonso]

Poli, regarding ... with the latter being vulgar, and the last not, you are correcting your correction, as you can see following the link below:

Originally Posted by poli

...

Regarding Hispanic countries, that is a political correction I don't share.

Thanks a lot for your effort, and I am not kidding.

[poli]

You acked me to to clarify my corrections several times. Each time I tweeked it a little bit more. Regarding the former/latter thing: refer to later corrections I made and you will note that I have not corrected my
English but yours. As far as "hispanic countries" is concerned, technically
it may be correct, but apolitically and honestly the term Spanish-speaking nations sounds less odd.

Poli
.

[Alfonso]

I'm sorry Poli. I'm a bad person, I know. To me it's clear who proposed the phrase in question, but I think it doesn't matter.
Anyway, I just wanted to point out that it's not easy to correct, and that one need to leave aside his own idiolect to consider what might be right and what is wrong in an other's text. For example, the question about Hispanic countries.
OK, it's perfect if you consider this expression a little odd, or you don't agree its political connotations. But, google it:

Hispanic countries: 191.000 entries.
Spanish speaking nations: 28.000 entries. (this one is the last one you proposed).

And:
268.000 de "Spanish speaking countries". (0,68 segundos)

You, bad boy, tried to exchange my Hispanic countries (pointed with 191.000 entries) with your Spanish speaking nations (28.000 entries).

Three possibilities are correct. Is one of them odd? Maybe Spanish Speaking nations... Poli's famous choice.

I know, I welcome all corrections, but it's important to follow some rules for the corrections to be worthwhile: to be as less invasive as possible, to be accurate, not to change the nuance of the text you are correcting, to think that you don't really need to change what is OK in some part of the world, to explain all corrections which are not grammatical (because the very first thing the learner thinks when he sees a corrections is that the grammar is wrong), etc.

I think we have enough confidence to share what I mention. I hope you understand it. Nevertheless, I will understand if you tell me to mind my own business. That's what I'm doing .

... I think you will not get upset with me, but if you get:

[poli]

Originally Posted by Alfonso

It's really tempting to link this daily word, leche, to Jane's today post, el colmo, as:

• Es el colmo.
• Es la leche.

... mean the same, with the latter being vulgar, and the former not. Do you use it the same way in other Hispanic countries?

__________________________________________________ _________
I never heard it either, David. I deal with people from other parts of Latin America and I haven't heard them use it use it either.
__________________________________________________ ___________
A clarified correction:
I'm tempted to link today daily word, leche to Jane's post aboutel colmo.
.Es la leche
.Es el colmo
The former is vulgar. The latter is not. Is the term es la
leche used in other Spanish speaking countries?

This time I corrected your question as close a possible to the way you wrote the sentence. Is the term es la leche truly vulgar, or is it meerly slang?

[Iris]

Talking about milk, I've always been intrigued by the use of the Spanish word in La Leche League, I wonder why they haven't translated the whole thing.

[Tomisimo]

Originally Posted by Iris

Talking about milk, I've always been intrigued by the use of the Spanish word in La Leche League, I wonder why they haven't translated the whole thing.

La Leche League doesn't really have anything to do with the Spanish language. They try to promote breastfeeding and to support breastfeeding mothers. For some reason they decided to use a foreign word in the name of their organization.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Early in the organization's history, local newspapers rejected meeting notices that used the words breastfed and breastfeeding, calling them inappropriate for family publications. The name comes from the two-syllable Spanish word, "leche" (pronounced leh-cheh) meaning "milk". It was inspired by a shrine in St. Augustine, Florida, with the title of `Nuestra Senora de la Leche y Buen Parto” or “our Lady of Happy Delivery and Plentiful Milk”.

[Alfonso]

Originally Posted by poli

Is the term es la leche truly vulgar, or is it meerly slang?

It's hard to answer this question. I would say it's softly vulgar, but not slang, as everybody might use it in a specific context.
I don't tell you this for you to use it at first chance (or do I?). But, If you hear in Spain: Ese tío es la leche or esta peli es la leche... don't think it's got something to do with milk...
Anyway, it's quite common and not so vulgar as other expressions meaning the same.