defile — a verb meaning “to march in a military line”
desfilar — the Spanish verb and cognate meaning “to parade past”
Unlike English, the Spanish verb isn’t reserved for military processions, and for that reason, it is much better known and much more commonly used than its English cognate. In fact, when you read the title of this entry, I doubt military parade marching even entered your mind, and you may have been quite confused by my subtitle. In English, when we hear or read the word “defile,” we think of much darker things than a military procession marching past us.
To help change that, here is the adorable elephant parade from “The Jungle Book.”
In Spanish, the word for “parade” is “desfile.” In all the years I taught Spanish, that word was always difficult for me to process with my students. It seemed odd that “desfile” meant “parade,” and I didn’t bother to look into it. Then, a month or so AFTER I left teaching, the light bulb went on for me when I was reading a passage in a novel in which some military men “defiled” past a building in which the protagonist was housed.
I recall my mouth literally dropping open as I slapped my forehead in sudden insight as well as disgust with myself. Those men were marching in a “single file!”
One of the meanings of “file” in English when used as a noun is “a row” of things, and when it is used as a verb, “file” also means “to march or proceed in a single row.” That’s why we say things like, “they filed past me.”
Ugh! Aarrgh! I was so mad at myself for not seeing the connection between “desfile” and our very common usage of “single file.” After all, I was a teacher for 30 years! How often did I tell students to do that very thing — “Stand in a single file, kids.”
“File” as well as its Spanish cognate of “fila” for “line” or “row” come from Latin’s filare which means to string things onto a single wire and thus create a single row of them. From that concept, you also get “defile” in English and “desfilar” in Spanish.
And from that, you get the Spanish noun of “desfile” for “parade” — that event where everything from military people to marching bands to clowns march past us in lines, or files.
I much prefer this processional definition of “defile.” However, after defiling past their spectators, many parades defile the streets with all the candy, horse droppings, and other detritus left behind in their wake.
Until next time. I hope I have improved your cognate cognizance. Additionally, I’m still trying to build my subscriber base for “Tomes and Topics,” so please give it a read and consider subscribing for 6 dollars a month or 60 dollars a year, which gives you two free months. Here is a link to it: Tomes and Topics
Thanks.
Tammy Marshall
Defile