Divertido, and Why it is a Perfect Word
For those of you who have been reading Screaming Into the Void for a while, you might remember that I have been endeavoring to learn Spanish recently. If you haven’t read the post, here’s the link.
I am currently 67 days into my Duolingo streak and at this point can say a bit more than yo como manzanas. In fact, yo quiero como muchas manzanas con queso y vino, just saying.
Recently I’ve been starting to notice more and more patterns in the way that Spanish words work linguistically, (yeah, this will be a pretty nerdy post). This brings me to the word of the week: Divertido, the Spanish word for fun.
Divertido is the Perfect Word
In Spanish divertido means fun, it can also be used to describe something funny, amusing, enjoyable, etc. So I might say something like, “Mi hija es muy divertida.” (My daughter is very fun. Which is true.)
But let’s look at this word in English: divertido. Divert kinda sticks out, don’t it. What does it mean to divert?
Divert: 1. Cause (someone or something) to change course or turn from one direction to another. 2. Draw (the attention) of someone from something.
When I think of something being divertido, I’m thinking of how something is diverting, or distracting, or pulling me away from something else. So when I say, “Mi hija es muy divertida.” I’m not just saying, “My daughter is very fun.” I’m also saying, “My daughter is distracting, or turning me away from other things.” (Also, quite often true.)
In this context, something that is divertido is diverting us from something unpleasant, or boring, or painful, and changing our attention to something pleasant, or fun, or exciting. So we wouldn’t say, “Mi examen es muy divertido,” (My exam is very fun) even though it does divert our attention from what we might’ve been doing previously. But we would say something like, I was having a hard day, but when I saw my daughter I was diverted, mi hija es muy divertida.
I was taken from a poor mindset, and diverted to a pleasant one.
You can kinda see where I’m going to go with this, can’t you?
Why Do We Need Divertido?
Divertido is a perfect word, because the word is exactly what it is. Diverting us, taking our minds away from something bad and bringing us to something positive.
Think about your day to day existence. You wake, you work, you come home, you cook, you clean, you sleep. The moments that make your day worthwhile. and your life worthwhile, are the moments where you are diverted, distracted from the routine and schedule of day to day life.
When life is hard, which it often is, think about why: where is the divertido? Where is the fun, the diversion? If ALL your life is just work, eat, sleep, where is the meaning? The times that I have been so ingrained with routine, have been the times I feel the least meaning, or joy out of life. The reason mi hija es muy divertida, is because with her there is no routine, not really. I might have “my routine” with her, my schedule, but toddlers rarely care what you have planned.
This is going to sound insanely cheesy, but picking up my daughter from daycare is the absolute best part of my day.
Why?
Because often the day is hard. Often I feel like I am slogging from one hour to the next, dragging against disappointments, and things that don’t go quite as well as I had hoped. Often I am tired, my voice sore from talking, and with coaching track, shouting. But when I get to my daughter’s daycare, and I open the door and I hear the squeal and the sometimes coherent “Daddy!” or “Da-da!” or, quite often just, “DA!!” And I see her smiling face come crawling towards me, and climbing up my legs to be picked up, I am diverted. All the weariness, and exhaustion, and stress diverts away, at least for a little bit, and I glean enough meaning each time, to add to my reserves to keep me going each day, fueling me, at least for the next day.
There is no Such Thing as a Synonym
As a writer, I tell people: there is no such thing as a synonym. Yes, no such thing. When you are writing there is exactly ONE word that is correct for the moment. I wouldn’t say I ran through a field of flowers, but I would say I pranced through a field of flowers — flowers are whimsical, much like prancing, running is not. Each word has a specific connotation, a concise image that you see with each word. I didn’t bounce the basketball, I dribbled it — there was purpose to my movement, I’m not just idly bouncing it around. The same can be said with divertido. Despite divertido being the Spanish word for fun, it is not the same thing.
Mi hija es muy divertida. Yes. But she is also frustrating, and difficult, and always somehow sick, she causes me to lose sleep, but also to feel better at just the sight of her. She is not fun. She is divertida. She is diverting me from the day I lived before seeing her. Saying fun would not accurately portray her.
Something that is divertido, isn’t just fun, it is something that diverts you, something that transports your mind to a better state of being. I enjoy reading, but reading isn’t exactly fun, but it is surely diverting, it does indeed transport me to a better state of being. For those that love reading, record your thoughts before and after you start a long session of reading. You go in, sometimes, tense, or stressed, or exhausted and at the end you feel at ease, relaxed. You are diverted. Divertido.
The Things We Call Divertido
There is more than just reading. Writing to me is divertido, it’s cathartic. For many running is divertido, video games, cooking, some weirdos even like math to the point of calling it divertido.
Our passions would be divertido. Fishing, camping, kayaking, weightlifting, knitting, making music, painting, there are countless things we could call divertido. These things are not just fun, they are diverting, they are bringing us out of one state of mind to a different, better state. These are the things that we find give our lives meaning, give us something to look forward to, to work towards.
The reason divertido is a perfect word, is because it describes what it is we should be searching for. Diversion. Transporting ourselves to a better state of mind: finding meaning and a break from the routine of our day to day. Fun is small, fun is a minuscule moment passing quickly, impacting nothing. Divertido is fleeting, yes, but it creates change — perhaps temporary — it can even be a tiny moment, like a toddler scrambling across a floor to climb up your legs, but it creates impact.
Mi hija es muy divertida.
Now it’s very possible that I am imbuing this word with meaning that it does not actually posses, but that’s part of the fun of language: there is denotation - the literal definition of a word, and then there is connotation - the emotional connection, or image that a word creates for you. This is the connotation that is created for me with this word. Maybe it is a mirror where I create what I wish it to mean. Such is life.
What about you? What is divertido to you? Talk about it in the comments, if you so desire!
Now for your consideration, here is Robin Williams in Dead Poet’s Society. It is very important.