Escombrar

[DailyWord]

This is a discussion thread for the Daily Spanish Word for November 24, 2008

escombrar - verb - to clean up, straighten up. Look up escombrar in the dictionary

Voy a escombrar la sala porque ya casi llegan los visitas.
I'm going to straighten up the living room because the guests are almost here.

[María José]

Originally Posted by DailyWord

This is a discussion thread for the Daily Spanish Word for November 24, 2008

escombrar - verb - to clean up, straighten up. Look up escombrar in the dictionary

Voy a escombrar la sala porque ya casi llegan los visitas.
I'm going to straighten up the living room because the guests are almost here.

It's the first time I hear this word. I would say ordenar, colocar. In fact escombrar is a bit confusing. Escombro is Spain means debris...

[sosia]

Agree with maria José. In Spain, we usually use the word "desescombrar" instead of "escombrar", and usually for debris.
saludos

[Vikingo]

Interesting.. Oxford Unabridged didn't even have the word listed. Not desescombrar either, by the way. I hate it when that happens.. But a lot of the online dictionaries have it, and they consider desescombrar and escombrar to be synonyms.

[Jessica]

I usually would think ordenar would be the correct way, like María José said....hmmmm

[poli]

Escombrar may be one of those words specific to Mexico-- like ponte
abusado. I'm glad I know it now. If I were to guess, I would have surely thought that escombrar would mean to wreck the room rather than to get it in order.
Incidentally RAE is in complete agreement with Tomísimo regarding this word. It's not Mexico specific, but my guess, by the response it got, it that it's used more in Mexico than elsewhere

[Vikingo]

poli: that's what I would have though too - "convertir en escombros", or something like that. But none of the dictionaries I've consulted have said anything about being specific to Mexico.

[CrOtALiTo]

We say in Mexico escombrar, I have never heard the word desescombrar.

[Tomisimo]

Escombrar is probably a Mexico-specific word, although I'd have to research it a bit to find out.

Edit: Poli's right as well. It's in the RAE, and it doesn't give any regional notes either.

[María José]

Originally Posted by Tomisimo

Escombrar is probably a Mexico-specific word, although I'd have to research it a bit to find out.

Edit: Poli's right as well. It's in the RAE, and it doesn't give any regional notes either.

I asked two of my students, one Colombian and the other Chilean and they had never heard it either, so as you said, it's probably a Mexican word...

[CrOtALiTo]

Yes, the word Escombrar is very commonly on my country, for example you can to say the word in this way, I need Escombrar my room, I don't know if on your country the word is very popular than on my country.