It's all in the family

Family is a familiar-looking familia but the nearest translation for it’s all in the family would be todo se queda en casa - it all stays indoors. 

As an adjective familiar refers to family so anything proclaimed to be tamaño familiar will be family-sized. Lazos familiars are family ties (literally bows, ribbons) and un negocio familiar is a family-owned business. 

As a noun, un familiar is a family member, usually closely-related while relatives who are more distant are usually parientes.

In Spanish words hijo and hija - son and daughter crop up outside the family, too, so as well as its obvious meaning, the word is an endearment, especially in diminutive form.  ¿Qué quieres hijito? - what do you want, sonny? can be said to a two-year-old, a twenty-year-old and even a forty-year-old, if you go in for that sort of thing. 

Men rarely use hijo amongst themselves, although the paternalistic like to address women as hija, while girls and women use the word all the time, with or without a touch of irony or sarcasm.

Those with sharp ears might – but probably not often these days - still hear conscientious socialists, union members and extinct communists using the traditional hermano or hermana - brother or sister.  Outside the family, the words apply to a monk or a nun and are not used in the wise-cracking American manner.

Un tío is an uncle and una tía is an aunt, but both are much-used slang for man and woman.  The most polite way to attract someone's attention is not necessarily ¡eh tío! but a good chap won't object to being described as un buen tío.  On the other hand, un tío bueno might be both avuncular and good but this generally implies an attractive male.

 ¡Tía buena! is what workmen on building-suites call out to passing females and is an abbreviated example of a cherished Spanish tradition known as el piropo – compliment.  These can be imaginatively elaborate and although they were rarely coarse the more respectable a female deemed herself, the less respectful she would deem these kind words.

Piropos are still around and, while now tending to be more explicit, they have also moved with the times: quisiera ser página para que me agregaras a tus favoritos – I’d like to be a web page so you could add me to your Favourites.

Un tíovivo, literally a live man, isn't the opposite of a dead man but a Spanish merry-go-round.  Un primo and una prima mean a male and female cousin respectively and are also slang for a dupe.

Abuelo, abuela and the diminutives abuelito and abuelita mean grandfather and grandmother, but un abuelete or una abueleta is an old man and an old woman.  These aren't discourteous but may not be too well-received by those not feeling their age. 

The Spanish way to blow your own trumpet is no tener abuela - not to have a grandmother, since grandmothers are internationally notorious for boasting about their grandchildren.



...grandmothers are internationally notorious for boasting



¡Tu padre! however, is an abbreviated form of a traditional insult that involves one's own bowels and someone else's father.  While on the subject of insults, it is advisable to avoid hijo de puta, which means son of a whore. 

It's not a nice thing to say in any language but is so offensive in Spanish that some years ago a variety of fish was renamed palometa in order to avoid the phonetic embarrassment of asking for half a kilo of japuta.

Knowing this, you'd imagine es de puta madre is even worse as insults go.   Instead it is an incredibly uncouth but enthusiastic and vehement way to announce that something or someone is really very, very good and very, very special. 

¡Madre mia! ¡mi madre! and ¡anda mi madre! are all said when surprised, impressed or exasperated.

¡La madre que te parió! - the mother who bore you!  is an exclamation that can be a sour reaction to something said or done to you. 

Inconsistently, it can be yet another piropo if addressed to a woman, but as for the reason why, that is probably something only oedipally-challenged Spaniards – mothers’ boys all – would be capable of explaining.