A equivalência em espanhol e em português do vocábulo inglês ape, com uma reflexão sobre a incompetência de certos tradutores e lexicógrafos e o dececionante dicionário da RAE

Abstract

Desde hace varios decenios, en el castellano de España, incluyendo el propio de la enseñanza y divulgación de la ciencia, está generalizado el uso gratuitamente rupturista, empobrecedor y disfuncional de la voz simio con el sentido restrictivo de ‘mono antropoide’, cuando su significado genuino, tradicional y funcional es el de ‘mono’. Tal adulteración semántica se ha debido, principalmente, a una traducción errada de la voz inglesa ape, ‘mono antropoide’, cuya raíz, efectos y difusión se analizan en este trabajo. Aunque no con la misma intensidad que en castellano, el magnetismo exorbitante que, en su simplicidad y especificidad, el término inglés ape ejerce sobre el traductor también origina soluciones traductivas poco satisfactorias en Portugal y en Brasil, deficiencias que se han hecho extensivas a los diccionarios bilingües de inglés/portugués.

In the last few decades, in the Spanish language of Spain—including that of science education and public dissemination—an unnecessarily disruptive, dysfunctional and impoverishing usage of the word simio in the restrictive sense of ‘ape’ has become widespread, whereas its traditional, genuine and functional meaning—as a learned synonym of mono—is ‘monkey’. Such a semantic alteration has been mainly brought about by an incorrect rendition of the English word ape—in its complementary meaning to monkey—, whose origin, effects and dissemination in Spanish are addressed in the present paper. Although not with the same intensity as in Spanish, the “exorbitant magnetism” which, in its simplicity and specificity, the English word ape exerts on translators also gives rise to inadequate lexical usages in Portugal and Brazil; a flaw that has also reached English/ Portuguese bilingual dictionaries. Unfortunately, yielding to a popular usage that stems from the negligence or technical incompetence of some translators and writers, in the most recent version of the Royal Spanish Academy’s dictionary the correct definition of simio present in the previous edition of its work has been replaced by a new one that reflects the semantic disfigurement discussed here.