On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:33:48 -0700, Hatunen <hatunen@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:10:59 -0700, Bob Cunningham
><exw6sxq@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
[...]
>>Googling on "refried beans" seems to come up with more statements that
>>"refried" in "refried beans" means "fried twice" than with
>>explanations of what really appears to be the true meaning, "fried
>>well".
>
>All I can get by googling is that the beans are cooked twice:
>boiled as beans normally are, then mashed up and fried.
Okay, I see now that "cooked twice" is in several hits, at least
implied, as a reason for the term "refried". I seem to have
carelessly taken that to mean "fried twice".
But it still seems to be true that the word "refried" doesn't come
from the twice cooking, even with the first cooking not being frying.
It does seem to be true that the "re-" is an intensifier, not a sign
of repetition. When people use "cooked twice" in discussing refried
beans, it seems likely that a lot of people will take it to mean fried
twice.
Interesting to see, two popular American desk dictionaries differ
significantly in their definitions of "refried beans".
_Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary_ reflects the
misconception
beans cooked with seasonings, fried, then mashed and
fried again.
_Webster's New World College Dictionary_, in both the third and fourth
editions, has the definition that we seem to have learned here to be
the right one:
a Mexican dish consisting of beans, especially pinto beans,
that have been simmered till tender, then seasoned, mashed,
and fried
>According to http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/refritos,
>refrito can mean either "over-fried (demasiado frito)" or
>"re-fried (frito de nuevo)", which seems to mean newly fried,
>which refritos are, after boiling.
But I take "frito de nuevo" to mean "fried again".
At http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=de+nuevo
there are a number of forums discussing, directly or indirectly, "de
nuevo". One of them, from a native speaker of Spanish from Argentina,
has the remark
Pasámelo otra vez. ó
Pasámelo de nuevo.
El significado de esas dos frases es el mismo.
But note that the Spanish dictionary you quote doesn't suggest that
the definition of "refrito", "frito de nuevo", applies to refried
beans:
refrito
adjective
1. over-fried (demasiado frito); re-fried (frito de nuevo)
I take that to suggest that "refrito" can mean "demasiado frito" when
applied to refried beans, but can also mean simply "fried again" in
other contexts.
--
Woody Wordpecker
Greater Los Angeles, California, USA
Western American English
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