Don: Honorific Spanish title, also an acronym, and the short form of “De origen noble.” Translated into English as being “From Noble Origins.” Initially reserved for royalty, nobles, or influential church leaders, it is now commonly used to show respect for age, wealth, education, and social or political distinctions. The easiest way to explain it would be to say it is tantamount to saying Sir, or Mister, but it’s much more complicated than that, much more, and I won’t go into it because I’ll confuse everybody including myself. The only other things I’ll say about it is that the female form is doña, as in doña María, and that there was no way to keep people from calling me don Segundino or don Seg, for short.
To Fuegians it was all very simple. I was a person of means, thus, as you would expect, the “don.” Carlos my pilot friend was don Carlos because of his education and career. He’d tried to explain it to me once arguing it was so simple, but even he had to admit it was funny when a British pilot arrived in Punta Arenas once, named Don, and everybody felt honor or bound to call him don-Don, while trying hard to keep a straight face.
In reference to the need for don, Nacho put it another way, in my mind, the simplest way.
“Can you call me Seg? I asked him one day, “and drop the ‘don’ part?”
“No señor,” was his set answer. “Nunca.” (Never)
“And why not? I asked.
“Porque.” (Because).
I could understand “porque.”
From In the Land of Fire.
6 thoughts on “Don: Honorific Spanish title . . .”
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manuel
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manuel
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