Ok, you language people! Once again my students have challenged the need for the word boligrafo claiming it would never be used in Mexico. I learned it in Spain back in 1967 and am required to teach it because of the text I use. HOWEVER, I feel I have to check this whole thing out! I am interested particularly in hearing from folks who have used Spanish in a variety of countries: do you generally hear pluma used more than boligrafo?
(of COURSE I told the kids that having a rich vocabulary is important!)

[ 11-08-2001: Message edited by: la maestra ]

In some South American countries "boligrafo" would only be used to describe a reeeeeally nice, fancy, expensive pen, like a Parker. "Pluma" is used more often than not, and some places they casually say "lapiz" for both pens and pencils.

La Maestra,
I just used my "Diccionario Durvan de la Lengua Española" and did not find the term boligrafo listed. I did find the term pluma described as a writing instrument. However, in my language studies I have always understood that boligrafo was a term used to designate ball point pen, while pluma was an ink injected, or ink dipped pen. In will ask our Spanish linguistics expert at our college , who happens to be from Mexico, and ask her this question.

In terms of usage, which is what really counts in language, I have heard my library colleagues from Mexico, Columbia, Bolivia, and Venezuela use the term boligrafo, while my Spanish Caribbean colleagues from cuba and Puerto Rico use the term pluma more often. I will check our copy of the Diccionario from the Real Academia Española and check how they define boligrafo. I don't have an etimological diccionary of the Spanish language.

I agree with Nicole's thoughts on this subject that the use of boligrafo is used as a refined form of writing instrument.

As a funny aside though, in Costa Rica, the term pluma means 'simpático". so I wonder if they use boligrafo instead of pluma for a pen? Muy interesante!



[ 11-08-2001: Message edited by: Booklady ]

Wow! I'm happy to have a Spain story on this topic!!

A couple years ago I went into a papelería in Madrid which had a HUGE selection of pens in all price ranges. I was in the company of my ladyfriend (una madrileña), but still, the entire situation happened IN SPANISH with the store owner/clerk.

I wanted to buy a nice pen, or at least an unusual one, for a coworker who has a fetish for pens. I asked for a "pluma" and the clerk showed me hundreds of fountain pens.. that is to say, pens that were used with ink-wells, those pens into which one would dip liquid ink in order to use. I kept saying, "No. Estoy buscando una pluma normal." and he kept showing me more fountain pens, but less expensive. FINALLY, I held up a display model of a ballpoint pen and both the clerk and my ladyfriend said, "¡Ay! Quieres decir un BOLIGRAFO" (o un "boli"). I was embarrassed, but what could I do? I ONLY learned that "una pluma" was a pen and didn't realize the different varieties.

I believe that whenever my ladyfriend asks me to hand her a standard ballpoint pen from the desk she always asks for "un boli" (or "boligrafo").

I can't really say how they're called in Latin America, though. Sorry. I might suggest launching your question in the Spanish language forums here on the message board to get a broader range of responses. I know we had a recently joined message board member from Mexico. Maybe he/she would know. Oh yes! It was "The MexicanTraveler".

Saludos, MadridMan (still confused)

[ 11-09-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

Oh, MM, you've found a big soft spot of mine! I love fountain pens and am always delighted by the selection of them in various Spanish stores, ranging from art stores to tobacco shops. My husband and I came home with three new ones (or was it four?) after our trip there in March.

General question for Spanish people on the board...do many people use fountain pens (liquid ink pens--refillable from ink wells or with cartridges)? I always assume that a higher proportion of the population must use them there, compared with here in the US, because there are so many available in stores (and at all sorts of prices--here, they tend to be "status" pens, but in Spain, you can find really nice ones, or trendy ones, or cheap ones, or whatever).

Now if someone would tell me where to buy lovely, heavy, monogrammed stationery in Spain (to go with my fountain pens), I would be in heaven!

I remember being corrected on the bolígrafo/pluma issue as well. Shopkeepers always are very helpful and knowledgeable about those fountain pens, I have found!

Tara (whose handwriting is ONLY legible when I use a fountain pen with quick-drying ink because I am a lefty)

[ 11-08-2001: Message edited by: taravb ]

taravb, I'm a lefty too (writing from above the line). Smear! Smear! Smear!

Hello from Madrid!
MMan is absolutely correct about the use of the word bolígrafo, or rather "boli" in Spain.
I don't think the use of ink injected or ink dipped pens is widespread at all these days. It seems to me that a while ago, it was customary to give plumas as presents, just like one would buy the traditional necktie, scarf, perfum or chocolates.
I'm trying to get info about good places for beautiful stationery. In the meantime, I can explain what "tener pluma" means in modern castellano, it means to be extremely affected or queer. Same thing happens with "entender", If you're asked by a Spanish person if "¿tu entiendes?", it may mean: do you understand(whatever)?, but there's a chance they're asking if you're gay. How tricky, uh?. My advice....think of the context!!
Saluditos

[ 11-09-2001: Message edited by: pim ]

I was really surprised to see 6-responses and never see the term lapizero mentioned. Am I the only Spanish-speaking member who uses that term for boligrafo? I haven't been to Mexico since '95 - it's not Mexican. And when I ask a desk clerk at a hotel in Spain for un lapizero, he/she seems to understand me perfectly.
BTW
Since '95, I have probably spent a total of more than 60-days in Spain (spread over six visits). My spoken/written Spanish is that of the Comunidad de Madrid, spoken rapidly, as in Cantabria.

Hi Eddie!,
En España:
(Lápiz) o lapicero=pencil (wood, plastic or metal, but NO ink, the kind that can be erased)

saludos, p.

Taravb, there are a lot of people here in Spain that prefears to use a "pluma" rather than a "boli", although in the last years, this is changing as good ball points are in the market.
The reason? I think that it's easier to write with a pluma as you have to make less force to write. I don't know if they still do it on shcolls, but when I learned to write, during a couples of years they obliged me to use a "pluma" in the shcool; they said it was better to develop a wand-writting stile.
As a couriosity, usually when there is a signature of an important document here in Spain (i.e. alliances of companies, big loans, etc.) they allways use a pluma instead of a bolígrafo. Why? I am not sure, but seams like more formal, and they usually gave also a pluma to the key people who attend to the act.