Personaje curioso

[laepelba]

No estoy segura sobre el significado de la palabra curioso en esta frase:

Español: Pablo Neruda, el gran poeta chileno, es un personaje curioso en una película italiana.

Mi intento:
Inglés:
Pablo Neruda, the great Chilean poet, is an interesting character in an Italian film.
OR....
Pablo Neruda, the great Chilean poet, is a strange character in an Italian film.

O ... ¿qué?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

It could be both, but it would rather depend on the way his portrait has been presented in such film.
With no more context, I can only assume the use of "curioso" has a positive intention, as they recognize him as a "gran poeta".

[pjt33]

Without context I would say "a character", but in context that doesn't work. "An eccentric character", perhaps.

[aleCcowaN]

We can't say what it means in that sentence. Al least four contrasting meanings are possible (curious, unusual, strange, ...). We need more context ¿El cartero y Pablo Neruda?

[laepelba]

Thanks, all - that helps. At least it's not me, huh?

Alec - I'm not sure, as I haven't seen that movie. But I just went and read a short blurb about it, and it looks like that's it.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

Al least four contrasting meanings are possible (curious, unusual, strange, ...).

It is curious that Latin curiosus can mean so many different things such as bestowing care, painstaking, careful, diligent, thoughtful, devoted, attentive, inquiring eagerly, curious, inquisitive, meddlesome, officious, prying, inquisitive.

I was curious about this, so looked it up. Perhaps it is not so curious after all that curious can have so many different meanings, and that curioso can have them all as well.

[aleCcowaN]

You are right.

"Curioso" is also in Spanish a ... wildcard. It is "curioso" because it has caught our attention for being <insert one of hundred meanings here>. It is also comfortable because we can express a strange feeling without qualifying the cause ("Es raro" ---> "Me parece curioso" ). How do they call these kind of words? bus words? (in Spanish "palabras ómnibus")

[chileno]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

You are right.

"Curioso" is also in Spanish a ... wildcard. It is "curioso" because it has caught our attention for being <insert one of hundred meanings here>. It is also comfortable because we can express a strange feeling without qualifying the cause ("Es raro" ---> "Me parece curioso" ). How do they call these kind of words? bus words? (in Spanish "palabras ómnibus")

Just like in English "odd" but the RAE does not list this meaning of "raro/odd" under "curioso"

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by chileno

Just like in English "odd" but the RAE does not list this meaning of "raro/odd" under "curioso"

That is indeed odd.

Gran Diccionario Oxford:


curioso1-sa adjetivo
A (interesante, extraño) curious, strange, odd; es curioso que no haya venido it's odd o strange o curious that she hasn't come; lo curioso del caso es que … the strange o funny o odd o curious thing is that …

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Perikles

That is indeed odd.

Gran Diccionario Oxford:


curioso1-sa adjetivo
A (interesante, extraño) curious, strange, odd; es curioso que no haya venido it's odd o strange o curious that she hasn't come; lo curioso del caso es que … the strange o funny o odd o curious thing is that …

Correct. But RAE is only an Spanish-Spanish dictionary.

[JPablo]

How funny!
You guys are funny characters!

(No offense intended at all... just practicing here... but I think using "funny" in English would have a similar "ambivalence" or "pluri-valence" or "multi-valence")

Some times when I hit "funny" I am not sure if I should go with "divertido" "curioso" "chistoso" or, or, or...

So the CONTEXT gives you the exact clue...

Funny, isn't it?

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by JPablo

How funny!
You guys are funny characters!

(No offense intended at all... just practicing here... but I think using "funny" in English would have a similar "ambivalence" or "pluri-valence" or "multi-valence")

Some times when I hit "funny" I am not sure if I should go with "divertido" "curioso" "chistoso" or, or, or...

So the CONTEXT gives you the exact clue...

Funny, isn't it?

You're so right! I have had the most difficult time trying to understand how to word sentences in Spanish when I would use the idea of "funny" in English... You apparently have it down pat, though, curiously enough.

[chileno]

Correcto. También se usa en castellano la palabra "divertido(funny)" para decir "curioso". Por lo menos en Chile se usa/usaba así.

[JPablo]

@Lou, well I wouldn't say "down pat" because sometimes I have to struggle to figure it all out, but at least I have some kind of "stable datum". But thanks for the validation.
@Chileno. ¡Qué curioso, en Chile y en España hablamos un español que parece español!