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]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /esˌtaɾ ˌentɾe ˌpinto i baldeˈmoɾo/ [esˌt̪aɾ ˌẽn̪.t̪ɾe ˌpĩn̪.t̪o i β̞al̪.d̪eˈmo.ɾo]
  • Syllabification: es‧tar en‧tre Pin‧to y Val‧de‧mo‧ro

Adverb

estar entre Pinto y Valdemoro

  1. (idiomatic, Spain) in two minds, undecided
  2. (colloquial, Spain, idiomatic) to be half gone, to be three sheets to the wind[3]

References

  1. ^ “Entre Pinto y Valdemoro”, in Fundación de la Lengua‎[1], (Can we date this quote?)
  2. ^ Noemí López Trujillo (10 August 2012) “¿Qué hay entre Pinto y Valdemoro?”, in abc.es‎[2]
  3. ^ “Pinto”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

Further reading

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