Learning Spanish with underwear

I've done Chiruca here before. My advanced years mean that I forget where or when I first heard, or read, the word but someone, on the telly, on the radio, on Twitter, used the word in a phrase. I had no idea what it meant so I asked WordReference and the Diccionario de la Lengua Española and they knew. It turned out to be a brand of walking boots; well, famous as walking boots but nowadays they make all sorts of walking footwear.

So exactly the same idea as when, in the 1980s, I might have said that I had some new Docs or that I was going to get a Barbour or a Burberry (boots, waxed coat or mac(kintosh)). In fact everyone, well I suppose it's everywhere, does this. I watch American films where they say Band Aid and Scotch tape instead of Elastoplast and Sellotape. Unless I'm mistaken Addison Lee is the UK generic for a cars that aren't taxis but are - Cabify here I suppose. Bubble wrap or taser are both trade names too.

The Spanish ones can be useful. One of my favourites is pósit for a post-it but asking for Kleenex, Danone  or Ariel, with Spanish pronunciation, in the supermarket would definitely score points.

I saw another one a while ago, it was on Twitter. The tweet, in Spanish, ran something like "Bella Hadid discovers Abanderado t-shirts". I had to look up both Abanderado, and Bella Hadid, but apparently celebs are wearing underclothes as outerwear on the streets and the Twitter user wasn't overimpressed. Abanderado are a bit like Jockey and Y-fronts - a way of describing a style of underwear. 

The Abanderado firm started in Cataluña in the 1960s and, by showing men in underclothes on Spanish telly, they became very famous here. They were particularly well known for those Marlon Brando style white t-shirts but they didn't forget Bruce Willis style singlets. By the 1980s Abanderado had 37% of the Spanish men's underwear market. When Sara Lee bought the firm out in 1991 they hired Michael Jordan to sport their wares and proclaim their virtues in adverts. Nowadays Abanderado is owned by Hanesbrands who also own other underwear brands like DIM and Playtex.

One for the next time you're having a conversation about Y-fronts in Corte Inglés.