a palo seco
Spanish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Literally, “on (a) dry stick”. The phrase dates back to the 18th century sailors who would eat the bare minimum during violent storms, when the mast (the "stick") would be bare of sails ("dry").
Adverb
[edit]- (idiomatic) on its own (without any other type of food)
Related terms
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “a palo seco”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10