No problemo
"No problemo" is a slang expression used and popularized in North American English to indicate that a given situation does not pose a problem. It has roughly the same meaning as the expression "no problem".
The expression is sometimes used as an instance of "pseudo-Spanish" or Mock Spanish.[1] Its usage as a Spanish expression is incorrect; a correct translation would be ningún problema, sin problema or no hay problema. Many English words from Latin roots evolved to an -o in Spanish from the masculine Latin suffix -us, such as "insect" (insecto), "pilot" (piloto), or "leopard" (leopardo); however, "problem" belongs to the series of words ending with an a in Spanish that have a similar English counterpart, such as "poet" (poeta), "ceramic" (cerámica) or "rat" (rata). In the case of problema, this is because it has a Greek 'ma' ending, and as such is among the Iberian words ending in 'ma', such as tema, which is in fact masculine.
In the constructed languages of Esperanto and Ido, the word "problem" translates as "problemo".[2][3] However, the etymology of the expression's use in the English language cannot be traced to either of these languages.
See also
References
- ^ John M. Lipski (2004). "Is 'Spanglish' the third language of the South?: truth and fantasy about U.S. Spanish" (PDF). p. 15. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
- ^ "Esperanto-English Dictionary". Retrieved 2010-01-12.
- ^ Mann, David (2007). "English-Ido Dictionary : P". Retrieved 2010-01-12.