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pulpos

English translation: leeches

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11:45 Jan 9, 2012

Spanish to English translations [PRO]
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters

Spanish term or phrase: pulpos

Text from Chile - netizens protest about real estate development on Concon Dunes.
In the sentence:

No deja de asombrarme la falta de criterio, etica y moral de ciertas empresas. Pónganse al día, pulpos.

Romi0925 KudoZ activity Questions: 3 (none open) Answers: 2
Local time: 22:24

English translation:leeches

Explanation:
Something greedy and anti-social.

Selected response from:

patinba
Argentina
Local time: 23:24

Grading comment

Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +7

leeches

patinba

4 +2

sharks

Simon Bruni

4 +1

octopus / (capitalist) conglomerates

Ana Terzaghi

3 +1

ram raider

Mónica Algazi

2 +1

fools/idiots

Wendy Streitparth

2 +1

suckers

Helena Chavarria

oh, you, who don't have a clue

Barbara Cochran

Discussion entries: 1

Answers

7 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

fools/idiots

Explanation:
-

Wendy Streitparth
Local time: 04:24
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 8

12 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

octopus / (capitalist) conglomerates

Explanation:
The expression tends to assimilate the big companies to octopus trying to embrace everything. The word for "pulpos" used in Latin American countries in contexts like the one you mention is "octopus"

Ana Terzaghi
Local time: 23:24
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Spanish

11 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

suckers

Explanation:
It's in the line with octopus. Octopuses have suckers

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 mins (2012-01-09 11:59:21 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

1. One that sucks, especially an unweaned domestic animal.
2. Informal
a. One who is easily deceived; a dupe.
b. One that is indiscriminately attracted to something specified: "The nation's capital is a sucker for a symbolic gesture" (Jonathan Alter).
3. Slang
a. An unspecified thing. Used as a generalized term of reference, often as an intensive: "our goal of getting that sucker on the air before old age took the both of us" (Linda Ellerbee).
b. A person. Used as a generalized term of reference, often as an intensive: He's a mean sucker.
4. A lollipop.
5.
a. A piston or piston valve, as in a suction pump or syringe.
b. A tube or pipe, such as a siphon, through which something is sucked.
6. Any of numerous chiefly North American freshwater fishes of the family Catostomidae, having a toothless jaw and a thick-lipped mouth adapted for feeding by suction.
7. Zoology An organ or other structure adapted for sucking nourishment or for clinging to objects by suction.
8. Botany A secondary shoot produced from the base or roots of a woody plant that gives rise to a new plant.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 14 mins (2012-01-09 12:00:47 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Definitions 2a and 7 might serve your purpose.

Helena Chavarria
Local time: 04:24
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English,

Spanish
PRO pts in category: 8

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Deborah Lockett: "suckers" would probably be understood in meaning no. 2 "ones who are easily deceived", but you could put "parasites" for instance // I only saw the ambiguity when you pointed it out, thanks for that! And "rose bushes" would be fantastic sarcasm!!

2 hrs

-> Thanks! I think you're right but because I wasn't 100% sure who the speaker is addressing, I thought that "suckers" could work for both the companies or the people who allow the companies to do what they do.

neutral

philgoddard: By the same analogy, the answer could be "roses", because roses have suckers.

3 hrs

-> I suppose you're joking! Ha ha! And why not cuttlefish, which also have eight tentacles and live in the sea? "Sucker" is quite a common expression.

16 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +7

leeches

Explanation:
Something greedy and anti-social.

patinba
Argentina
Local time: 23:24
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 40

Grading comment

Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

24 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

ram raider

Explanation:
"Pulpo" es otra manera de llamar a las "empresas tiburón"

http://diccionario.reverso.net/ingles-espanol/ram raider

Mónica Algazi
Uruguay
Local time: 23:24
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in category: 15

57 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

sharks

Explanation:
From the Oxford English:

shark2
■ noun informal
a person who exploits or swindles others.

From the Oxford Spanish-English:

C (Chile familiar) (explotador) shark (familiar)

Reference: http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=pulp...

Simon Bruni
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:24
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 107

1 day3 hrs confidence:

oh, you, who don't have a clue

Explanation:
HTH

Barbara Cochran
Local time: 22:24
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 16

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pulpos

English translation: leeches

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pulpos

English translation: leeches

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KudoZ™ translation helpThe KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.

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