# Ισπανική υποχώρηση



## qnk

Concerning the recent propositions of the Greek Government about the Greek seashore I see in the newspaper this title:

«Ισπανική υποχώρηση» με εντολή Σαμαρά I cannot make out the meaning of this sentence. "Spanish retreat" ordered Samaras. I don't quite get this "retreat". Can you help me? Thank you.


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## Perseas

_to retreat _~ here: _to withdraw the bill_
_The seashore bill has been temporarily withdrawn by order of Samaras._


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## ireney

As far as I know that is how, for some reason I do not know, España Cañí was translated (Ισπανική υποχώρηση). For other reasons I do not know (I don't know a whole lot looks like  ), "ισπανική υποχώρηση" has come to mean "hasty retreat", "absolute retreat". What I do know is that, oversued as it is I do love that piece of music!


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## qnk

Thank you Perseas and Ireney for your answers.  It is clear for me that Samaras has withdrawn the bill… but the mention of España Cañí has kind of complicated something. First of all the origin of España Cañí as the title of a Spanish song that appeared some eighty years ago. Why was it translated into Greek as Ισπανική Υποχώρηση today is a mystery to me as it is to Ireney. And the music of it is really nice. Nowadays it is rarely played but not so in my childhood and later.
I have made searches on Internet and have found that the words ισπανική υποχώρηση are in many titles of news and other positions. And the translation suggests --I’m not sure—that it could be something like “chaos” or “chaotic”. 
Here are some links
http://www.stockwatch.com.cy/nqcontent.cfm?a_name=news_view&ann_id=128514&lang=gr
http://www.12830.gr/forum/genika-themata/ispanikh-ypoxwrhsh-stis-ksenes-glwsses/5/?wap2
http://www.12830.gr/forum/genika-themata/ispanikh-ypoxwrhsh-stis-ksenes-glwsses/5/?wap2
http://www.antinews.gr/POLITIKE/epixeirisi-anastilosi/
There is another more link about the connection between Ισπανική Υποχώρηση and España Cañí among other clichés. 
http://www.jumpingfish.gr/article/10-klise-me-th-lexh-ispanikos-poy-tha-varethoyme-n/3990
So, I think that ισπανική υποχώρηση  is mostly a figure of speech that has nothing to do with Spain. Am I right?


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## Perseas

I didn't know that "ισπανική υποχώρηση" is the translation for "España Cañí". (By the way I thought it was somehow related to the "Armada Invencible" ) The term is used very often by the media, mainly in the titles, and of course has nothing to do with Spain.


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## qnk

Yes Perseas, in YouTube what you get with Ισπανική Υποχώρηση is the Spanish song España cañí. But cañí does not mean υποχώρηση at all. In the song it means "gypsy" but it has another meaning, "tipical, folkloric". And nowadays when you see the term España cañí in the papers, usually it has a negative meaning: Spain as a backward, behind country. It is of course a metaphor. So maybe the metaphor of ισπανική υποχώρηση is somewhat related with this negative meaning, if not exactly "backward, behind", could it be "chaos, chaotic" as I pointed above. What do you think of when reading Ισπανική Υποχώρηση in the title of a paper?


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## Perseas

qnk said:


> What do you think of when reading Ισπανική Υποχώρηση in the title of a paper?


As ireney has put it above: "hasty retreat", "absolute retreat". Or even panic implied.


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## qnk

OK, thank you, Perseas.


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## Αγγελος

This may be reading too much into a journalistic cliché, but there could conceivably be an allusion to the risk of turning our beaches into a Greek version of Benidorm.


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## qnk

Άγγελε, be sure that if that law passes the Greek seashore will be a new Benidorm. What a horror! But this is a different question. The problem for me was a linguistic one. How it came to be together the two words Ισπανική Υποχώρηση and the evolution to a metaphorical sentence into a different meaning as a "hasty, absolute retreat". Maybe there was an original connection between υποχώρηση and καθίζηση or similar and something happened or used to happen in Spain that linked the two words. I do not really know.


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