• Batman@lemmings.worldEnglish
    44·
    2 years ago

    According to my Spanish friend, 1st one is a cocodrilo 2nd is a cocodrilo 3rd is also a cocodrilo 4th is a monstruo

    • NielsBohronEnglish
      41·
      2 years ago

      Fun fact about the etymology of “alligator:” When the Spanish first landed in what is now Florida, they found alligators and simply called them “el lagarto,” which literally translates to “the lizard.” While there were many reptiles in the swamps and bayous, only one was enough of a problem to be called “THE lizard,” and after several mistranslations being borrowed into other languages, “el lagarto” morphed into “alligator”

      Or at least that’s what I read somewhere once.

        • NielsBohronEnglish
          5·
          2 years ago

          Good to know! I took years of Spanish classes and my kids are in a Spanish immersion school in California, but I’ve only ever heard lagarto for smaller lizards and cocodrilo for anything resembling crocodilians

          Thanks for the info

          • Canadian_Cabinet @lemmy.caEnglish
            3·
            2 years ago

            Yeah lagarto literally means lizard, but we use it for pretty much any type of reptilian that looks like a lizard lol

      • hakase@lemm.eeEnglish
        9·
        2 years ago

        All of this is correct, except that it’s not a “mistranslation”, it’s a borrowing. Boundaries between words and morphemes are commonly lost in borrowing, and borrowed sounds commonly undergo adaptation as well.

      • Aussiemandeus@aussie.zoneEnglish
        8·
        2 years ago

        In the northern Territory of Australia we have no alligators. We are however famous for pur salt and fresh water crocodiles.

        So whe.n Europens arrived and found this few massive rivers full of crocodiles they called them the West, South, and Aast alligator rivers.

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    30·
    2 years ago

    Way back in the day in middle America my parents got my Lil brother a pet baby cayman.

    Well…it kept getting bigger. Then bigger. Then we got a book and figured out she was sold a bootleg alligator instead. Poor choices caused it to get released at a local pond. Childhood had a lot of bad choices in my family.

  • Anticorpdeleted by creatorEnglish
    6·
    2 years ago

    I’m pretty sure the first one is a caimen and the second might or might not be a crocodile.

  • ZugyukEnglish
    16·
    2 years ago

    Isn’t the first one an alligator, and the third a crocodile?

    • MuchPineapplesEnglish
      41·
      2 years ago

      No, I also though so at first but a quick google confirms this is right.

      If you look up ‘freshwater crocodile’ you’ll see he looks a lot like his mommy.

      • trxxruraxvrEnglish
        5·
        2 years ago

        No. Alligators have a rounded snout and only upper teeth visible. The third one is the alligator