sobremesa

sobremesa

English

Etymology

From Spanish sobremesa.

Noun

sobremesa (plural sobremesas)

1. Time spent at the table after eating; the habit of relaxing at the table after a heavy meal.
   • 2010, Drew Launay, The Xenophobe's Guide to the Spanish‎, Oval Projects, →ISBN:

     A lackadaisical attitude to time explains the sobremesa—the time after lunch when everyone has finished eating but no-one wants to get up and leave. Sitting around the table chatting and drinking coffee or brandy or patxarán (a sloe liqueur from the Basque country) is the solution.

   • 2013, Frederick L. Aldama; Ilan Stavans, ¡Muy Pop!: Conversations on Latino Popular Culture, University of Michigan Press, page 106:

     The figure presiding continues in this function during the sobremesa, that is, the time spent lingering and chatting after the meal. It's perhaps significant that in English there is no specific word for sobremesa.

   • 2020 December 31, Diego Salazar, “The Year of Not Eating Out”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:

     And then I’d realize I was still missing everything about what once made me love food: the people who create it and the “sobremesa” — the limitless chat after desserts, the reluctance to leave the table, the delight in shared experience.

Translations

time spent at the table after eating

Basque: bazkalondo Catalan: sobretaula (ca) f Dutch: natafelen (nl) n Portuguese: sobremesa (pt) f Spanish: sobremesa (es) f

Further reading

• sobremesa on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Portuguese

sobremesa

Etymology

From sobre- (“above”) +‎ mesa (“table”).

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /so.bɾeˈme.zɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /so.bɾeˈme.zɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /so.bɾeˈme.za/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /su.bɾɨˈme.zɐ/ [su.βɾɨˈme.zɐ]

• Hyphenation: so‧bre‧me‧sa

Noun

sobremesa f (plural sobremesas)

1. dessert (sweet confection served as the last course of a meal)

   Synonym: sobrepasto

   Coordinate terms: antepasto, prato principal

2. (figurative) the last event in a series of good events

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Spanish

Etymology

From sobre- +‎ mesa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sobɾeˈmesa/ [so.β̞ɾeˈme.sa]
• Rhymes: -esa
• Syllabification: so‧bre‧me‧sa

Noun

sobremesa f (plural sobremesas)

1. tablecloth
2. sobremesa (time spent at the table after eating)
   • 1887, Benito Pérez Galdós, “La boda y la luna de miel”, in Fortunata y Jacinta‎:

     La sobremesa fue larga. Pegaron la hebra D. Basilio y Nicolás sobre el carlismo, la guerra y su solución probable, y se armó una gran tremolina, porque intervinieron los farmacéuticos, que eran atrozmente liberales, y por poco se tiran los platos a la cabeza.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • 1897, Juan Valera, chapter X, in Doña Luz‎:

     La cena solía durar hasta las once, y además casi siempre permanecían de sobremesa los señores, mientras que cenaban los criados, siendo este el momento de mayor confianza y alegría.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

3. (computing) desktop

   un ordenador de sobremesa ― a desktop computer

4. (obsolete) dessert

   Synonyms: dulce, postre

Derived terms

• computadora de sobremesa
• computador de sobremesa
• conversación de sobremesa
• ordenador de sobremesa

 

Descendants

• → English: sobremesa

See also

• postprandial

Further reading

• “sobremesa”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
• sobremesa on the Spanish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^es