por arte de birlibirloque
Appearance
Spanish
[edit]Adverb
[edit]- (idiomatic) as if by magic
- 2016 July, “El populista corrupto”, in El Nacional[1]:
- Difícil creer por estos tiempos de tsunamis de petróleo, oro, coltán, diamantes y demás etcéteras que el ciudadano común no alcanza a imaginar pero cuyos efectos que pudieran ser beneficiosos terminan, por arte de birlibirloque, en manos de políticos populistas que, como vulgares asaltantes de bancos, se disfrazan de gente del montón para encañonar a los cajeros y ponerle la mano al botín, valga decir, el tesoro público.
- It's difficult to believe in these times of tsunamis of oil, gold, coltan, diamonds and other sundries that the common citizen cannot imagine but whose effects that could be beneficial end up, out of the blue, in the hands of populist politicians who, like vulgar assailants of banks, disguise themselves as ordinary people to point guns at the tellers and get their hands on the loot, that is, the public treasury.
Further reading
[edit]- “por arte de birlibirloque, o de encantamiento”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28