Morboso

[poli]

Dictionary defintions of the word morboso state that it means morbid. I accept that, but (at least in Latin American Spanish) it seems to mean something else. When a child pokes fun at a relative. A parent may say , no seas morboso.

Has anyone else heard this use of morboso?

[Iris]

Over here it means morbid as far as I know.

[Alfonso]

But morboso means sexy!
I don't think it means morbid for the majority of the people.
I've checked it and DRAE doesn't reflects this nuance. Are those academic people morbid?
When somebody tells me that algo tiene morbo, I don't understand anything related to death, but to sex. And this is not only in my mind.
To tell a child not to be morboso is a kind of not very subtle paedophilia.

[Iris]

Alfonso, you and me are definitely on different wavelengths. For me morboso doesn't relate to sex at all...

[poli]

When I hear the word morboso , although it appears to translate to morbid, it appears to have a sexual connotation. For example: a mother
yelling at her son for buying a certain magazine (at least among latins who have settled in New York).

[Alfonso]

Originally Posted by Iris

Alfonso, you and me are definitely on different wavelengths. For me morboso doesn't relate to sex at all...

¡Qué morbo tiene! What do you think this mean? Please, Iris, I'm not an obsessed (... rrrrrrrr, am I?), it's just common language!

[Pixter]

I agree with Poli, I looked up the definition of "morboso" and it's exactly the same as "morbid" in English, HOWEVER, among most Latin people it does have a sexual connotation.....it's not really used for any other purpose....We would say "Ese hombre es tipo morboso" - one that often makes sexual innuendos

[Rusty]

One definition of morbid is 'having or showing an unhealthy interest in unpleasant subjects, especially death and disease'. El interés malsano puede significar cosas diferentes de persona en persona. Unpleasant subjects can also mean different things to different people. The 'especially death and disease' part obviously comes from the etymology of the word (disease in Greek).

But, have a look at the following dialog:
-¿Hay material pornográfico en su casa?
-Sí, pero mi hijo no lo ve, él no es nada morboso.

I doubt any of us anglohablantes would use morbid in the translation. The parent associates looking at pornography as algo morboso. While I agree that looking at pornography can be described as an 'unhealthy interest in unpleasant subjects,' I still find it hard to translate morboso as morbid in this case - the 'disease and death' part of the definition keeps me from doing so.

So, apparently there is another meaning attached to the word morboso in Spanish.

I would translate the adult's response several ways, always keeping in mind that an adult is speaking and describing how he himself views the practice:
... he isn't interested in it at all.
... he isn't into that/it ...
... he isn't weird ...
... he isn't sick/vile ...
... he isn't perverted ...

[Tomisimo]

So morboso might be akin to calling someone a pervert or sicko.

[sosia]

Originally Posted by Rusty

One definition of morbid is 'having or showing an unhealthy interest in unpleasant subjects, especially death and disease'. El interés malsano puede significar cosas diferentes de persona en persona. Unpleasant subjects can also mean different things to different people. The 'especially death and disease' part obviously comes from the etymology of the word (disease in Greek).

But, have a look at the following dialog:
-¿Hay material pornográfico en su casa?
-Sí, pero mi hijo no lo ve, él no es nada morboso.

Morboso significa "morbid"
Pero como Rusty dice, morboso indica interés en "unpleasant subjects". De ahí se ha ido trasladando por ejemplo, al ámbito sexual, y hay gente que por ejemplo, al ver a una mujer sexy casada, dice "esta tiene mucho morbo", indicando que nó sólo es sexualmente atractiva, sino que el hecho de que esté casada lo hace más interesante ("le da más morbo") llegando a la acepción que indica Alfonso/Pixter, que es muy común oírla en España. Ejemplos: mujeres casadas, a punto de cumplir los 18 pero sin tenerlos, hijas de un militar ó padre peligroso, etc.
Saludos

[Alfonso]

Having or showing an unhealthy interest in unpleasant subjects, especially death and disease.

But this comes directly from the etymological nuance of morboso,from morbs-is, Latin word for death.
Despite of what dictionaries say, I don't think most of the people use this term with its original nuance.
For that, there are other words, like macabro, or, much more technical, escatológico.

Anyway, I don't think of anything unpleasant, forbidden or whatever if I say esta chica tiene morbo. For me, it meas plainly she's sexy, I don't mind her father's profession, her marital status...
So, morbo doesn't mean your own preferences about women or men, although these can be unhealthy or not.

I would say: esta tía tiene morbo: this sweetie is hot. Is this unhealthy, unpleasant?

[Iris]

If you say it to me I think I won't complain .

[poli]

Originally Posted by Alfonso

Having or showing an unhealthy interest in unpleasant subjects, especially death and disease.

But this comes directly from the etymological nuance of morboso,from morbs-is, Latin word for death.
Despite of what dictionaries say, I don't think most of the people use this term with its original nuance.
For that, there are other words, like macabro, or, much more technical like escatológico.

Anyway, I don't think of anything unpleasant, forbidden or whatever if I say esta chica tiene morbo. For me, it means plainly she's sexy, regardless of her father's profession, her marital status...(is this a non-sequitur?)
Also, morbo doesn't refer to your own preferences for women or men, whether or not these preferences are unhealthy.

I would say: esta tía tiene morbo: this sweetie is hot. Is this unhealthy, unpleasant?

------------------------------------------------------------------
En la frase que empiece con also, tuve que cambiar mucho. No estoy seguro si capturé tu sentido. Me avisa si cambié el significado inadvertidamente.

[Jane]

Originally Posted by Alfonso

Having or showing an unhealthy interest in unpleasant subjects, especially death and disease.

But this comes directly from the etymological nuance of morboso,from morbs-is, Latin word for death.
Despite (In spite / Regardless of) what dictionaries say, I don't think most of the people use this term with its original nuance.
For that, there are other words, like macabro, or, much more technical, escatológico.

Anyway, I don't think of anything unpleasant, forbidden or whatever if I say esta chica tiene morbo. For me, it meas plainly she's sexy, I don't mind her father's profession, her marital status...
So, morbo doesn't mean your own preferences about women or men, although these can be unhealthy or not.

I would say: esta tía tiene morbo: this sweetie is hot. Is this unhealthy, unpleasant?

A small correction (in addition to Poli´s).

[poli]

That's right in spite of/ regardless of is correct. You can use despite too but it is never followed by "of".

Jane, is that you some decades ago?(referring to your avatar)

[Elaina]

Well, although I have always known it to mean morbid, I have also heard it used to mean something sexual but not in a very nice sense. All the uglies that you can think of in relation to sex (not the nice ones) I've known to be called "morboso".

Elaina

[Jane]

Originally Posted by poli

Jane, is that you some decades ago?(referring to your avatar)

...

[Alfonso]

Originally Posted by Elaina

Well, although I have always known it to mean morbid, I have also heard it used to mean something sexual but not in a very nice sense. All the uglies that you can think of in relation to sex (not the nice ones) I've known to be called "morboso".

Elaina

For example?

[María José]

These are some dictionary definitions of morbid :
- pathological or diseased
- psychologically unhealthy
- characterized by preoccupation with unwholesome thoughts or feelings
- gruesome, grisly
- having an unusual interest in death or unpleasant events.
So it seems there is no mention of sex, unless you would want to include it in the unpleasant events category...