Comments on: Spanish walk

By: Pablo

Pablo — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 16:40:00 +0000

As a spaniard I find this derogative use of the term spanish quite amusing – OK, it’s also a bit offensive, but all languages have some unfortunate legacy expressions from a different time.
I find “spanish castles” to be particularly ironical, since spain is littered with old castles from the time of the “reconquista” (the war to drive the muslims away from Iberia after their invasion in 711, until their last stronghold in Granada was retaken in 1492).
In fact the name of the biggest of the kingdoms that made up Spain and which gave it’s name to the spanish language (usually refered to in Spain as “Castellano” to distinguish it from the other regional languages spoken in Spain) is Castilla (from the word Castillo, meaning castle)

By: Duncan Bush

Duncan Bush — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 16:07:21 +0000

Actually, Joshua Ferris’s novel refers explicitly to the walk Spanish pirates made their prisoners undergo, holding them by the scruff of the neck so their toes barely touched the deck. Clearly a phrase from the great days of the British navy. . .

By: Marty

Marty — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 23:10:00 +0000

In the Joshua Ferris novel Then We Came to the End, an account of an ad agency in free fall during the dot.com bubble burst of the early 2000s, the term walking Spanish denotes the final act of those personnel who have been given the axe. Their exit from the agency, carrying personal effects in a carton down a long hallway, is referred by the survivors as walking Spanish and likened to the stiff-legged walk of a pirate’s victim being prodded down the gangplank at the end of a cutlass.

By: mike

mike — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 20:19:26 +0000

20th century con slang for not going completely strait after being released from prison, i.e., still doing jobs.

By: B.Rokas

B.Rokas — Thu, 22 May 2014 07:38:59 +0000

Eighteenth British navy slang for deserting .

By: Sparrow

Sparrow — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 09:28:12 +0000

It is said that walking Spanish was what pirates called walking the plank i.e. walking unwillingly towards something. In that case – death. Interesting theory about walking with straight legs. Would I be correct in thinking that condemned people would probably be wearing shackles (in America, chains linking hands and feet) so would be forced to shuffle with a straight legged gait? Great song – one of my favorite songs by my favourite singer.

By: Big DD

Big DD — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 23:23:11 +0000

Cool song and groove. Obscure lyrics. Jeff Bridges played an ex-con in American Heart, ca. early 90s. In one scene, he heatedly tells his son how his parole officer is making him walk Spanish. After that I assumed it was just prison slang for staying straight.

By: Topi Linkala

Topi Linkala — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 19:45:20 +0000

Sorry to inform you Mr. Evans, but as much I like Tom Waits, the more I like Van Morrison.

By: h.s. gudnason

h.s. gudnason — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:01:35 +0000

@Alex I think that the term in dressage is part and parcel of the elaborate court ceremonies that started in Burgundy in the fifteeenth century and passed from there to Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and the Habsburg court in Vienna. The Spanish Riding School in Vienna dates back to the sixteenth century.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:22:17 +0000

Have you considered the possibility that it is the other way around and that the stiff legged gait of prisoners made to “walk Spanish” inspired the name for the style of dressage?