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Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

pelear contra el bicho

English translation:

fight the bug

Added to glossary by patinba
Mar 8, 2022 10:57
2 yrs ago
47 viewers *
Spanish term

pelear contra el bicho

Spanish to English Bus/Financial Business/Commerce (general) Business report
"El quinto plan lo hemos sufrido juntos, ha sido complicado este 19-21 que ha sido un plan de resistencia, de pelear contra el bicho..."

I'm guessing this is an idiom, but I can't find it anywhere. Or is it literal - and the bug they are referring to is Covid?

Any thoughts please?

Thank you.
Proposed translations (English)
4 +4 fight the bug
4 +3 fight the bug
4 fight off the virus/bug
Change log

Mar 9, 2022 14:09: patinba Created KOG entry

Discussion

Nestor Jerez Mar 11, 2022:
@Phil Bicho is for sure a very colloquial term, I never imagined that Barbara's grandma had used "bug" for the colds of her time. A word intended to mention insects. Nowadays the whole context calls for more sober words. Plage (pest) is quite adequate, as @Pati says after the rush goes by, we will maybe call it "the roach" in a couple of years. It also is interesting that plague and beast can be a vocabulary biblically related. Now the most colloquial use bicho could have is a generic use to name something, as in the example of the forgotten word to ask for something. I feel something away from me, therefore strange when I can even call it by its name: "un bicho." Even when it's a fain in memory. "Scourge" is totally new for me, Thanks for that, colleague!
David Hollywood Mar 9, 2022:
just means "fight the bug"
Barbara Cochran, MFA Mar 9, 2022:
All one has had to do over here in the US, since about February 2020, when Dr. Hollywood Fauci and President Trump held the initial press conference to warn all of us Americans that a pandemic known as CoronaVIRUS was going to descend on us, is say "the virus"(and nothing more), and not "the bug", to denote that hideous, life-destroying syndrome known as Covid 19. Everyone here knows that the phrase "the virus", which has been used since the beginning of 2020, one, whether a doctor or Joe Schmo, has been referring to Covid 19. It hasn't been just any old bug. It's "the VIRUS", and not just some normal bug, because it morphed into a PANDEMIC.
AllegroTrans Mar 8, 2022:
@ All Asker is in UK, and in my experience "bug" is often used for "flu bug" just as Barbara says, but equally for more serious diseases/infections/viruses. It's simply colloquial, not the term I would expect a doctor to use for Covid-19. Also, as Phil says, the text sounds like reported speech.
Barbara Cochran, MFA Mar 8, 2022:
"Virus" more closely approximates the usual translation of "bicho", plain and simple.
philgoddard Mar 8, 2022:
I'm interested by Nestor's "strange, ugly, evil things away from us". DRAE gives one of the definitions as "persona aviesa, de malas intenciones". I can't help feeling that "bicho" is a lot more negative than "bug" - perhaps "plague" or "scourge" would be nearer the mark.

Also, we're assuming that this is about covid, but we don't have much context. We don't know what this "quinto plan" is, and while the question is headed "business report", to me it sounds more like someone speaking.
Barbara Cochran, MFA Mar 8, 2022:
Not Around Here "Bug", like I mentioned below, refers to the so-called "normal" strains of flu that one comes down with, and which disappear within a few days, or at the worst, a couple of weeks later. That is why I actually prefer to use "virus", as opposed to "bug", when referring to something which could last for quite a while, and in the form of "long Covid", which is obviously a lot more serious than some transitory flu (bug) that always clears up completely. My grandmother, who died way back in 1990, well before the emergence of Covid, used to talk about having a "flu bug". So I think that the term "bug" is pretty dated, esp. in the age and context of Covid.
patinba Mar 8, 2022:
@Phil It is a very common colloquial comment in no way meant to be a scientific description. Surely at some time in the last two years someone will have asked if you have "caught the bug" when referring to Covid?
philgoddard Mar 8, 2022:
Everyone seems agreed about "bug", but I'm not sure. A bug is a minor inconvenience, not a disease that kills six million people and causes global economic chaos.

I'm not sure of the exact connotations of "bicho", but it also means "beast".

Proposed translations

+4
10 mins
Selected

fight the bug

Covid, definitely.

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Note added at 11 mins (2022-03-08 11:09:33 GMT)
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Francisco Juarez H {PacoJuarez} on LinkedIn: La alternativa ...https://www.linkedin.com › posts· Translate this page
Pero sobre todo con mucha salud (de los dos tipos de salud, jejeje ) y recuerden en no bajar la guardia, este bicho de COVID sigue y seguira entre nosotros, ...

Crean arte que sana - Reformahttps://www.reforma.com › Vida· Translate this page
May 30, 2020 — ... es una batalla constante contra el absurdo de la vida y ahora con este bicho de Covid, este absurdo se eleva al cuadrado", dice Viskin, ...

Carta a los Reyes Magos desde Viajes Solidarios Tumainihttps://viajestumaini.org › 2021/01· Translate this page
Jan 5, 2021 — ... y conocimos a muchas de las personas que hubiesen viajado este año con nosotras si no hubiese sido por el famoso bicho de COVID-19.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 9 hrs (2022-03-08 20:46:21 GMT)
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Featured: Questions Answered and Updates on COVID-19 ...https://www.worksteps.com › featured-a-fit-for
Is there any advantage or disadvantage that people should be "hey, I'd rather have the Johnson & Johnson vs. the Moderna." Do you see any difference between ...

The Observer view on the year ahead for Europe - The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com › commentisfree › dec
Dec 26, 2021 — As with Boris Johnson, the Covid bug, not the machinations of Russia, China and the US, may yet be Macron's and Europe's undoing.

Juwan Johnson: Breaking News, Rumors & Highlightshttps://www.yardbarker.com › NFL › New Orleans Saints
He had many nervous that the Saints' star safety and sparkplug was hit with the COVID bug. New Orleans Saints News / FanNation Saints News Network / December 21 ...

We are facing threats on all sides - The Australianhttps://www.theaustralian.com.au › commentary
May 7, 2021 — Both British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President ... The COVID bug is tough and resilient and will not go down without a hell ...
Peer comment(s):
agree Nestor Jerez
2 hrs
Gracias Nestor, y bienvenido!
agree neilmac
8 hrs
Thank you!
agree Marcelo González
13 hrs
Gracias!
agree David Hollywood : pure and simple
16 hrs
Thank you, David!
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Many thanks!"
52 mins

fight off the virus/bug

Although I have rarely heard the Covid virus referred to as a bug. Usually a bug is a so-called "normal" flu.

https://www.linguee.com/english-spanish/translation/fight of...
Something went wrong...
+3
1 hr

fight the bug

Hola.

"Bug" is the less inaccurate option, the most similar to the Spanish "bicho", but this is a word we use to refer to "strange, ugly, evil things away from us" in quite informal contexts. We can refer to some-one making war and killing people as "el bicho ese", even when we momentarily forget the name of something we have to name, we say something like "give me that bicho, please." I ask myself if there would be some equivalent word in English, I mean with that strong connotation...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2022-03-08 13:34:38 GMT)
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There is a song, Bixo do Coco (No importa que sea en portugués) to illustrate well this connotation. It speaks about some scary entity getting in a home to take control over singer's thoughts. Buggy man is "el coco", o bixo do coco, that thing. What would be that thing in English?
Example sentence:

Pásame el... el bicho ese!

Es un bicho con mucho poder

Reference:

https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/es/2007/06/article_0003.html

Peer comment(s):
agree Eileen Brophy
25 mins
neutral patinba : Gracias por el agree.
35 mins
Ah, disculpa, ahí va. Es que soy nuevo aquí. Aunque con lo infinito del lenguaje me gusta más estar en desacuerdo... XD
agree neilmac : Not "Buggy" man, it's the BOGEYMAN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogeyman
6 hrs
Oh, GRACIAS por la corrección. Es gradioso enterarme dónde, cuando y cómo estoy equivocado!!! Mil gracias.
agree David Hollywood
15 hrs
Something went wrong...
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