Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

come-come

English translation:

fortune teller

Added to glossary by Wendy Gosselin
Jan 14, 2019 16:31
5 yrs ago
1 viewer *
Spanish term

come-come

Spanish to English Other Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
This is from a Chilean art education handbook for children:

Esta técnica de origen japonés, que permite plegar hojas de papel para construir figuras de diverso tipo, resulta un lenguaje plástico familiar a la mayor parte de los niños presentes: tal y como lo demuestran los diversos «actos educativos» con los que inicia lúdicamente cada sesión, todos los alumnos han tenido alguna experiencia en papiroflexia, al realizar barquitos, aviones o come-come de papel

Is it cones to hold French fries??

Thanks!

Discussion

Charles Davis Jan 14, 2019:
I remember them from schooldays, but I don't think I ever knew what they were called. Internationally, judging by Internet results, "fortune teller" is by some margin the most common name for them. There are probably regional differences. I'm sure "cootie catcher" is American, since "cootie" is itself an American word.
philgoddard Jan 14, 2019:
Nothing to do with fries If you Google it, as you presumably have, the first few hits are pictures. It's a children's game, though I can't remember what it's called.

Proposed translations

+7
9 mins
Selected

fortune teller

As you might expect, there are a number of terms in both Spanish and English for this children's game that uses a folded piece of paper.

A fortune teller (also called a cootie catcher,[1][2] chatterbox,[3] salt cellar,[4][5] whirlybird,[3] or paku-paku[6]) is a form of origami used in children's games. Parts of the fortune teller are labelled with colors or numbers that serve as options for a player to choose from, and on the inside are eight flaps, each concealing a message.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_fortune_teller


Peer comment(s):

agree neilmac : I remember these, but not the name. Sounds about right though....
1 min
Thanks, Neil, I couldn't remember the name either, I looked up "children's game with origami" and it was one of the first entries.
agree Ana Vozone
2 mins
Thanks, Ana.
agree Charles Davis : In Spanish it's more often called a come-cocos. Same thing. // Here's one from Argentina: "Come — Come o Comecocos", but the latter is still the primary term: http://www.oei.org.ar/a/Cuaderno_8.pdf (p. 44; p. 46 of file) // Me too
4 mins
Thanks, Charles, yes, I've been trying to find a decent reference for "come come", but most of the hits I get are for "come cocos".//Thanks very much, Charles. Perhaps it's a loan word from Brazil; I found a lot of references in Portuguese.
agree Manuel Bas y Mansilla : I guess chatterbox is the most common one.
18 mins
Thanks, Manuel. I simply can't remember, myself, although "whirlybird" sounds familiar.
agree philgoddard
39 mins
Thanks, Phil.
neutral MollyRose : Neutral only because I want to comment. I remember these! But I never knew they had a name.
6 hrs
Me neither. Thanks, Molly :-)
agree Andrea Shah : Not sure of Wendy's target audience, but as a kid in the States in the 90s, we called them simply "fortune tellers."
1 day 2 hrs
agree Yvonne Gallagher
1 day 19 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "THANKS"
11 mins
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search