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engaño desengaño

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poli
October 08, 2025, 05:59 PM
Quedé engañado. Quedé desengañado. I think the meanings are similar. The first one meaning, I was deceived; the second, I was disappointed. Am I right?

Rusty
October 08, 2025, 06:07 PM
Yes. Also disillusioned.
Both verbs have a few meanings each.

aleCcowaN
October 08, 2025, 08:19 PM
Yes, with desengañado disillusioned is the key. Something was broken. Trust was lost. Hopes were shattered. What we had believed proved to be a sham. Our heart was broken.

Engañado just means we were tricked.

poli
October 09, 2025, 03:03 PM
Yes, with desengañado disillusioned is the key. Something was broken. Trust was lost. Hopes were shattered. What we had believed proved to be a sham. Our heart was broken.

Engañado just means we were tricked.

OK. Now I'm getting a better picture. There's no good one-word English translation that I can think of for desengañar. It's like discovering that someone you trusted scammed you.
Desengañar implies being wizened up or hardened by experience which can be heartbreaking.

poli
October 10, 2025, 06:27 PM
So, can desengaño be a good thing like a learning experience? Burnt once, not burnt again?

aleCcowaN
October 10, 2025, 07:39 PM
Like breaking up and having the heart broken for a while? Yes, it can be.

I think you need some examples

A. M. M., de 20 años, es consumidor ocasional de hachís desde los 16 años. A los 18 años tras un desengaño sentimental presentó un episodio con ideas paranoides y depresión, por lo que ingresó en el Hospital Psiquiátrico Provincial donde estuvo internado 1 mes

"AÑO: 1986
AUTOR: Valbuena Briones, Agustín
TÍTULO: Toxicomanías y Alcoholismo. Problemas médicos y psiquiátricos
PAÍS: ESPAÑA
TEMA: 06.Salud
PUBLICACIÓN: Masson/Salvat (Barcelona), 1993"

Bueno, tal vez no era el mismo sombrero, que ni el mejor fieltro aguanta el sebo tantos años, no más que nosotros sin quebrarnos los lagrimones de desengaño que nos va echando la vida, y valga la comparación.


AÑO: 1980
AUTOR: Larreta, Antonio
TÍTULO: Volavérunt
PAÍS: URUGUAY
TEMA: 07.Novela
PUBLICACIÓN: Planeta (Barcelona), 1995

Ciertamente distinguidos sobrinos: Los vi salir el primero de mayo. Observé sus atuendos y escuché sus comentarios. Creí que, albergados bajo un techo común al cual todas las partes tendríamos derechos, por lo menos, juris tantum, nos habíamos dicho la verdad absoluta sobre lo ocurrido en el pasado próximo. Confieso mi desengaño. Ustedes, con alevosía y ventaja, se hicieron pasar por jipitecas trasnochados con melenas largas y bluejeans y vocabulario de los sesentas a fin de adormecer mi habitual sagacidad y creer que tenía que vérmelas con ingenuos retoños de la era de Mick Jagger, Janis Joplin y el Chic Guevara.

AÑO: 1987
AUTOR: Fuentes, Carlos
TÍTULO: Cristóbal Nonato
PAÍS: MÉXICO
TEMA: 07.Novela
PUBLICACIÓN: Fondo de Cultura Económica (Madrid), 1988


Los ejemplos son tomados de CREA (https://www.rae.es/banco-de-datos/crea)

poli
October 11, 2025, 01:18 PM
Thanks Alec. Disappointment and disillusion can be used as a translation for desengaño
in these cases.

aleCcowaN
October 11, 2025, 07:13 PM
As decepción and desilusión are also used and meaninful in Spanish, I'd say that desengaño specifically adds to a turning point when "the wool was pulled out of our eyes" and the ugly truth became evident, hence des-engaño: the shining lights turned to be a deception, so they no longer have effect on us.

The best way to say it is a very correct Spanish phrase, a little risqué in América

Como dijo el español "a mí no me cogéis más".

poli
October 11, 2025, 08:10 PM
...and this discovery of a scam or an infidelity that desengaño perfectly defines is curiously not found in one word in English. English let me down!:worried: Me quedo desengañdo.

aleCcowaN
October 12, 2025, 03:57 AM
Quedé desengañado, or, me dejó desengañado, but most frequently, me desengañé or me desengañó.

Me quedo desengañado sounds like a deliberate decision made on the fly, what doesn't match reality. El desengaño is more like the moment the magic ceases and one falls out of love, or deconverts from certain religion.

poli
October 12, 2025, 05:08 PM
Thanks again!