Why is a beer known as a lagarto ("lizard") in Cuba?
lagarto: (uso vulgar) cerveza (Cuba).
Neither the DLE entry (6.) nor the Diccionario de Americanismos one (V. 1.) explain the etymology.
Spanish Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, teachers, students and Spanish language enthusiasts in general wanting to discuss the finer points of the language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communityWhy is a beer known as a lagarto ("lizard") in Cuba?
lagarto: (uso vulgar) cerveza (Cuba).
Neither the DLE entry (6.) nor the Diccionario de Americanismos one (V. 1.) explain the etymology.
Another older word for beer in Cuba is láguer1. Lagarto came to be used as a synonym solely due to its phonetic similarity to laguér; the word has nothing to do with lizards in this context:
La motivación puede ser a veces puramente fónica, sin que medie ninguna relación semántica entre la palabra sustituida y la sustituidora. En el ejemplo presentado podría también considerarse que entra en acción un procedimiento de derivación mixta (véase a este respecto § 3.4.4):
lagarto [ampl. de láguer] m. cul. vulg. gen. cerveza [sin. véase en fría]
- Variación lingüística en el español de Cuba, Ariel Laurencio Tacoronte
3. MORFOLOGÍA Y SINTAXIS: 3.4 Cambios del significante: 3.4.3 Sustitución
1. Though láguer clearly derives from the English lager/German Lagerbier, in Cuban Spanish this refers to any type of beer, not just lagers.