Senor

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Revision as of 23:27, 6 March 2006

This article is about the misuse of the Spanish word "Señor". For the blue storybook character, see Señor. For the mortgage broker and used car salesman, see Senor Cardgage.

"Mister Senor, Sir? Can I have my football back?"

The word Senor is a common misuse of the Spanish word Señor. The difference in pronunciation comes from the lack of a tilde over the n — with the ñ, the word is pronounced "Seh-nyor", and means "Mister" or "Sir" in English. Without the ñ, the word is pronounced "Seh-nor" and has no particular meaning.

One of the original storybook characters was named Señor. This character's name is almost always spelled correctly (with the tilde) each time it has appeared in print, and it has also been pronounced correctly (as "seh-nyor") by both Strong Bad and The Prince of Town. This appears to prove that Strong Bad does indeed know how to pronounce "Señor", as recently as the email origins.

In the email kind of cool, Strong Sad refers to Senor Cardgage as "Seh-nyor" Cardgage, pronouncing his name in the same way as above. However, Strong Bad mispronounces his name as "Seh-nor", and he has been doing so ever since. He also consistently spells the name without the tilde. Senor Cardgage uses the word "senor" himself, thus proving that this is his official name. This has even given rise to a spoof holiday, Senorial Day.

Even though Senor Cardgage's name appears to be officially spelled and pronounced without the tilde, Strong Bad again misuses the word in the email pop-up, where he refers to himself as "Senor Muybueno". (Loosely translated, this means "Mr. Very Good".) This seems to indicate a more general trend of mispronouncing the word — given his vaguely Mexican heritage, this is particularly ironic.