Contrincante

[DailyWord]

This is a discussion thread for the Daily Spanish Word (http://daily.tomisimo.org/) for November 16, 2008

contrincante - masculine noun (el) - competitor, opponent, rival. Look up contrincante in the dictionary (http://www.tomisimo.org/dictionary/spanish_english/contrincante)

Pedro es contrincante de Juan en la elección.
Peter is John's opponent in the election.

[Jessica]

can contrincante mean "enemy" or is that a completely different word?
Obama es conrincante de McCain en la elección, ¿no?

[CrOtALiTo]

I don't think so, Jessica, the word Contricante is distinct to Enemigo, for example:

Obama is opponent of McCain.

Obama is enemy of McCain.

The two sentences does not mean the same.

[Jessica]

ok....to me enemy and rival are almost the same. but in Spanish I guess it's different.

[lee ying]

yes , it´s when two person is going to fight for the same thing. for example in a rally. box, tae kwo do. it´s a competetion. i think so.

[CrOtALiTo]

Yes, it's almost the same mean in both words.

[Tomisimo]

The words enemy and rival are very similar, yet they have different nuances of meaning. The best translation of enemy is enemigo.