Saber más que el Tostado

[DavidF]

Hi everyone, I´ve been researching a medieval Spanish theologian called Alonso or Alfonso Tostado.

Wikipedia claims that the phrase "saber más que el Tostado" (to know more than Tostado) is still used to describe someone who knows a lot.

Does anyone know if this is true? Is that phrase in use nowadays?

[Rusty]

I'm not a native speaker, but have never heard this expression used. I only found 5 total hits on the internet for the phrase, and it looks like all copied the idea from a single source.

Welcome to the forums, by the way.

Here are the words for 'a know-it-all': un sabelotodo

[aleCcowaN]

Never heard of it. I looked it up in a corpus and I found a few similar phrases from Spain, the most modern from about 1890-1900. One sole example from 1948 says «"Escribes más que el Tostado", dicen al que escribe mucho los amigos un tanto lenguaraces. El Tostado es como un tío negro de escribir, recocido de paciencia ante la mesa llena de papeles, ictérico de reconcomio de estar siempre tirando de pluma.»

[powerchisper]

En España no se utiliza , pero se usan otras parecidas:

Saber mas por viejo que por demonio
Saber mas que un zorro viejo
Saber mas por perro que por viejo
Etc

This is not usually used as "sabelotodo" , but more like "listo" , "enterao" ( wise guy )

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Not used in Mexico either.

Some colloquial expressions:
·Saber más por viejo que por diablo.
·Sabérselas de todas, todas.
·El que sabe, sabe.
·Tú, que todo lo sabes...
·Ser un cerebrito.


"Sabelotodo" has a pejorative nuance and it's used to talk with contempt about someone who brags about knowing anything.

Some neutral words for bright people:
·inteligente
·listo
·conocedor
·culto
·preparado
...

[DavidF]

Thanks for the welcome and replies.

From from what has been said, and from a publication I read, it seems that "Ha escrito más que el Tostado" (He has written more than Tostado) is an old Spanish proverb implying someone is a particularly prolific author.

[aleCcowaN]

Exactly. Wikipedia has this in Spanish: «Su ingente obra latina (llegó a hacer proverbial la expresión "escribir más que el Tostado") ocupó quince grandes volúmenes en la edición veneciana publicada entre 1507 y 1530» something like "The immensity of his body of work in Latin (it became <then> proverbial the expression 'writing more than Tostado') took fifteen large volumes in its Venetian edition published between 1507 and 1530". I suppose the expression is dated the same way the author is forgotten outside specific halls, as the themes he wrote about became increasingly extraneous to contemporary endeavors, so to speak.