Страница 81 из 86
Tonterias: nonsense; ornamental foolishness done with the bull such as hanging hats on his horns, etc.
Toreador: Frenchification of the word torero. Not used in Spanish except to refer slightingly to a French bullfighter.
Torear: to fight bulls in an enclosed place either on foot or on horseback.
Toreo: the art of fighting bulls. Toreo de salon: practicing cape and muleta work for form and style without any bull being present; necessary part of a matador's training.
Torerazo: great bullfighter.
Torerito: a small bullfighter.
Torero: professional bullfighter. Matadors, banderilleros, picadors are all toreros. Torera means having to do with bullfighting.
Torete: little bull.
Toril: enclosure from which bulls come into the ring to be fought.
Toro: fighting bull. Todo es toro: It's all bull; sarcasm applied to banderillero who has placed the sticks in some ridiculous place on the animal. Los toros dan y los toros quitan: the bulls give and the bulls take away; they give you money and they can take away your life.
Toro de paja: bull of straw; inoffensive bull; simple to the point of being without danger. Toro de lidia: fighting bull. Toro bravo: brave bull. Toro de bandera: super-grade of bravery in bull. Torazo: enormous bull; Torito: little bull. Toro de juego: life-size papier-mâché bull mounted on wheels and loaded with fireworks, pulled through the streets at night in celebrating fiestas in the North of Spain; also called in Basque — Zezenzuzko. Toro de Aguardiente: bull with a rope attached to his horns held by a number of people and let run in a village street for the amusement of the populace.
Traje de luces: bullfighting suit.
Trampas: tricks, frauds; ways of simulating danger without experiencing it.
Trapio: general condition in a fighting bull. Buen trapío: uniting all the desired qualities of type, condition and size in bulls of fighting strain.
Trapo: the rag; the muleta.
Trasera: estocade placed too far back.
Trastear: to work with the muleta.
Trastos: the tools, in bullfighting the sword and muleta.
Trinchera: trench; de trinchera: pass with the muleta given with the man safely out of reach of the bull; going into the refuge of the neck beside the horn as the bull turns.
Trucos: tricks.
Tuerto: one-eyed; bulls blind in one eye are fought in the novilladas. Tuertos or one-eyed people are considered very bad luck. One-eyed bulls are not exceptionally difficult to fight, but are almost impossible to do any brilliant work with.
Tumbos: falls or spills; the falls taken by picadors.
Turno: in turn; in regular order of seniority as in the action of matadors; everything is done in turn in bullfighting so that the bullfight may be run off rapidly and without disputes.
U
Ultimo: the last; último tercio: the last third of the bullfight in which the bull is killed with sword and muleta.
Uretritis: gonorrhoea; common ailment in the peninsula. Referring to this there is a Spanish proverb: Más cornadas dan las mujeres: the women gore more often than the bulls.
Urinario: comfort station.
Utrero: three-year-old bull. Utrera is cow of the same age. Many bulls now sold to be fought in Spanish rings are little more than utreros. Bulls in which the crosses of different strains made in breeding have not turned out well are often very brave as calves and utreros, but steadily lose bravery after they are mature at four years. This is especially true of bulls raised in the province of Salamanca. Consequently their breeders try to pass as many utreros as they can as bulls; fattening them on grain to make the required weight. It is these bulls sold to be fought before they are mature which eliminate all emotion and seriousness from the bullfight and by depriving it of its fundamental necessity, the bull, do more than any other agency to discredit it.
V
Vaca: cow.
Vacuna: having to do with cattle.
Valiente: courageous, brave.
Valla: wall or wooden fence or barrera.
Valor: courage, bravery, coolness. First quality a bullfighter must have.
Vaquero: caretaker or herder of fighting bulls on the ranch; cowboy, cowpuncher.
Vaquilla: small cow.
Vara: shaft; pic used in bullfighting.
Varetazo: blow by the flat of the bull's horn; any horn stroke which does not wound. May be a serious bruise with internal hemmorhage or merely a scratch.
Ver llegar: to watch them come; the ability to watch the bull come as he charges with no thought except to calmly see what he is doing and make the moves necessary to the manoeuvre you have in mind. To calmly watch the bull come is the most necessary and primarily difficult thing in bullfighting.
Vergüenza: shame or honor; a sin vergüenza is a bullfighter without honor or shame — Qué vergüenza! means what a shame or what a disgrace.
Veronica: pass with the cape so called because the cape was originally grasped in the two hands in the ma