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I'm reading Don Quixote, the Oxford edition, and ran into the word "omecils" (probably plural)- to which there is no explanation in the book itself, nor have I been able to find its definition online. The Google results only show me the exact passage I read on the book. Here is the segment:
"Peace," said Don Quixote; "where hast thou ever seen or heard that a knight-errant has been arraigned before a court of justice, however many homicides he may have committed?"
"I know nothing about your omecils," answered Sancho, "nor in my life have had anything to do with one; I only know that the Holy Brotherhood looks after those who fight in the fields, and in that other matter I do not meddle."
I can assume the word means "vocation" (or vocations in this case?), but I wouldn't know. Perhaps it's a mispronunciation of something? perhaps it's a word Cervantes coined and the translation left it as it is?
Well, this forum never disappoints me, so I'm turning my question to you... is "omecils" a word? what does it mean?
Last edited by Logwood; 10/31/2005 11:12 PM.
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my first thought was that it was just Sancho mis-hearing and mis-pronouncing "homicide", but then it could also be something that means "court of justice".
but then, I'm probably just tilting at windmills...
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It ain't in the brick and mortar OED and it ain't in my simple little tatterdy Dover Spanish dictionary, my Cassel's Spanish dictionary, nor my diccionario usual, neither. I'm going with cygni first guess. I think Sancho Panza was the type that would pretend to understand what a non-word meant.
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like the man said, homicides =? omecils to Pancho's ear.
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Yes. Imagine if you will that Sancho Panza is from Kentucky and Don Quixote is from Boston.
Last edited by consuelo; 10/30/2005 6:12 PM.
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Quote:
Yes. Imagine if you will that Sancho Panza is from Kentucky and Don Quixote is from Boston.
long as Sancho don't go new-kyu-lah...
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-Calla -dijo don Quijote-. Y ¿dónde has visto tú, o leído jamás, que caballero andante haya sido puesto ante la justicia, por más homicidios que hubiese cometido?
-Yo no sé nada de omecillos -respondió Sancho-, ni en mi vida le caté a ninguno; sólo sé que la Santa Hermandad tiene que ver con los que pelean en el campo, y en esotro no me entremeto.
In the Spanish Quixote, "omecillos" is not quite a mishearing of "homicidios" on Sancho's part, but a then-existing corrupted form of "homicidios" which is listed as rare in the current Academic dictionary. So it may be that the translator chose to trim "omecillos" to something somewhat English-looking ("omecils") and leave the reader to interpret it as Sancho's mis-hearing or as an alternative word for "homicide". The only slight problem with the "mis-hearing" option is that "omecils" in English does not seem to sound much like "homicides". The two Spanish forms ARE very close in pronunciation. 
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so omecillos means homicide? (or at least, it used to?)
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Yep. Omecillo means homicide. I guess it would be a lower register than cultured homicidio .
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so we're just catching red fish, eh?
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Quote:
The only slight problem with the "mis-hearing" option is that "omecils" in English does not seem to sound much like "homicides". The two Spanish forms ARE very close in pronunciation.
In Spain, maybe.
Whenever I try my rusty and limited Castilian on my Uruguayan friends, they all pronounce "ll" like "ch". 
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> ch
yeah, S. American Spanishes tends to use ch or a thick j (zdj?) for ll, though I don't remember the particulars... we had to keep track of which Spanish we were using when Counterpoint made its Latin American cd...
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Quote:
but a then-existing corrupted form of "homicidios"
Like I said, imagine Sancho is from Kentucky (or West Virginia...not to say there aren't learned gentlemen in those two states) and D. Quixote is from Boston (not to say there aren't uneducated people in Boston). The dialects and accents might make for some interesting misunderstandings. Sancho was a "campesino", near to if not illiterate and Quixote was a gentleman with a penchant for reading.
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Quote:
> ch
yeah, S. American Spanishes tends to use ch or a thick j (zdj?) for ll,
Yep, that Zj thingy sounds more descriptive.
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Looking carefully in the wording of my edition, Sancho said "I know nothing of your omecils"... so the "your" threw me off. But reading it without the "your" I can see how can one directly derive it's a mispronunciation of homicides.
Thanks chaps!
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Quote:
Yep. Omecillo means homicide. I guess it would be a lower register than cultured homicidio .
Sorta like the difference between first degree murder and second degree, I spect.
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Whoa! Go, Marianna! Woo-hoo--good for you, girl! [applause e]
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 ...err... thanks a lot, Jackie, but there is very little merit in my finding the quotation. I've read Quixote 'bout four times, so I know more or less my way around it. And by the way, if anyone's been put off reading it because they think it'll be "classicky", dull, or difficult... may I say that many people find it pretty funny, as well as interesting. Oh, and youse are all very right about differing pronunciation between the Latin American Spanishes and Peninsular Spanish(es). Since I'm sitting here in the middle of the Empire, I'd clean forgot such an insignificant little thing!  ...just kidding, ya know...
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Yes, I'm one of those who find Don Quixote funny (comical) as well as interesting... just imagine a megalomaniac and schizophrenic Shakespeare with a knight complexity, and there you have it...
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