estar entre Pinto y Valdemoro
Spanish
Etymology
Literally, “be between Pinto and Valdemoro”. Pinto and Valdemoro are two towns in the province of Madrid that used to be divided by a stream. The popular etymology is that once upon a time, a drunk man was walking along the river, jumping from one bank to the other and saying he was in Pinto, then Valdemoro, then Pinto, then Valdemoro again. After a while, he fell into the stream and then announced he was “between Pinto and Valdemoro”.[1] Other versions of the etymology allude to the kings of the House of Habsburg, who were said to be “between Pinto and Valdemoro” when frequenting a whorehouse between the two towns. Yet another version refers to wines. Valdemoro was famed for being of the highest quality in the land, whereas that of Pinto was a lower quality; thus a wine that was “between Pinto and Valdemoro” was one of mediocre quality.[2]
Adverb
estar entre Pinto y Valdemoro
- (idiomatic, Spain) in two minds, undecided
- (colloquial, Spain, idiomatic) to be half gone, to be three sheets to the wind[3]
References
- “Entre Pinto y Valdemoro”, in Fundación de la Lengua, (please provide a date or year)
- Noemí López Trujillo (2012-08-10), “¿Qué hay entre Pinto y Valdemoro?”, in abc.es
- “Pinto”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Further reading
- “estar alguien entre Pinto y Valdemoro”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014