Although it’s only the 30th, people in the village are already beginning to round their conversations off with the phrase “feliz salida y entrada…”
It always seems such a mouthful to me, and I can never get the order right – subconsciously I think “happy exit and entrance” seems a bit cart-before-horsish, although in the context of the old year leaving before the new one comes in, it’s perfectly correct. Still, it twists my tongue every time, and today it’s set me thinking:
Why does the English word “exit”, which translates to Spanish as salida, look so much like the Spanish word éxito, which means “success”?
Does this make it more or less logical that un producto que tiene salida has good possiblities for sales success?
And where in all this does the concept of “success” fit in, if un suceso is simply something that happens?
Anyway, for readers who won’t be back now till 2009, I shall just hope que la salida del año suceda con éxito – and that the new year brings success.
don't confuse the narrator 