‘Don’ vs ‘Senor’
ByMaybe I’m a little slow on the uptake here, but it’s taken me awhile to figure out that there is a big difference between ‘Don’ and ‘Senor’ (okay ladies, ‘Dona’ and ‘Senora’).
So far the best analogy I have is that ‘Senor’='Sir’ and ‘Senora’='Ma’am’ (for those of us who grew up in proper families in the US).
But ‘Don’ and ‘Dona’ seem to defy explanation; it’s obviously not “Mr” and “Mrs”, because the Chapins I know say ‘no way’. I hear them (Don and Senor), used interchangeably on occasions, and then there are other times where I am called ‘Don’ and my colleague is called ‘Senor’, and I haven’t quite figured out what the implication is. Is it familiarity? Is one a formal and the other casual? Maid #6 calls me ‘Don Marco’ more times in a day than I would like to be called ‘Good King Marco, He of Substantial Girth Who Knows the Mind of Every Woman‘ in an entire lifetime, but now I’m wondering if there is something patronizing about it. Have I become…a Patron?
And why is it so difficult to get my Spanish language keyboard to put those squiggly lines where they are supposed to be and not where they shouldn’t be?
P.S. One reader likes to call me ‘Papa’, and assures me it a sign of affection. Please don’t mistake my receding hairline for my age!
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6 Comments
February 4th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
If your reader is calling you "papa" without an accent, I'm not sure how affectionate it is. Ha!
Larry
February 4th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
In my experience, Don and Doña are primarily used by the household staff to address their employers and their (the employers) friends and family. It works out to express a recognition of a difference in status (an honorific), but also a familiarity of the relationship because Don and Doña are used with first names, and Senor and Senora are used with surnames. I was Niña for a long time, and at some point became Doña in my mother-in-law's house. My FIL was always Don Chepe (in 25 years I never heard him addressed by any of his staff (or their relatives) as Senor X.
I hear Doña Susy (for example) used outside of the house, but it is usually when someone is using it to refer a person when speaking to someone who would also use Doña Susy when addressing that person. For instance, my MIL might ask a vendor in the market whether Doña Susy had been by this morning, but she would ask her lawyer if Senora Jones had been by.
I also hear Doña Susy used affectionately by family members when they are referring (to some extent) to her role in the household. A nephew might say "Doña Susy made a wonderful dinner today," but he would not say Doña Susy when addressing her directly.
I will enjoy hearing other perspectives on the usage of Don and Doña.
February 4th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
My Guate wife explains that Don is reserved for people of greater importance (read higher income or social status).
February 4th, 2010 at 11:35 pm
You know you're in trouble when you're referred to as "reina". I swear sometimes it is an insult.
I find it is a continuium. I can start as dona, then become senora and finally when true respect is achieved, I'm back to dona. Go figure. that's the way *I* like to look at it.
And, um, if you get called PAPI, you know you're in trouble.
Well, if it works the same in Guate as Mexico.
February 5th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
DON = De Origen Noble … is what I was told dating back to the Courts of the Spanish King.
February 8th, 2010 at 10:14 am
The use of “papá” and “mamá” or padre and madre as a form of addressing someone might be derived from Mayan languages. In Kiché for example, people use “nan” and “tat” when talking to adults, which is a direct translation of mother and father.
Padre (papá or papa) is a term that implies admiration almost. When one soccer team beats another one, “son los padres”. Unless, like Larry said, your friend was calling you papa, as in the vegetable!