/karˈɣaɾ el ˈmweɾto/ lit. ‘to load the dead body (onto someone)’
Spanish idiom, colloquial. To shift the blame onto someone else.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Spanish speaker.
How do people use Cargar el muerto
?
Colloquial and common in Spain and Latin America. The blame-shifting sense needs the indirect object: “le cargaron el muerto a Juan” (“they pinned it on Juan”). Its mirror image, “quitarse el muerto de encima”, is getting the blame or the problem off your own back.
Also said cargarle el muerto a alguien, echarle el muerto a alguien, quitarse el muerto de encima
Cargar el muerto
in real sentences
-
Todos intentaban quitarse el muerto de encima.
Everyone was trying to get the blame off their own back.
Tatoeba, sentence by Seael, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Cargar el muerto
come from?
Nobody has a documented origin. A popular story says that in medieval Castile the village where a murdered body was found had to pay a fine, so people would drag the corpse onto the neighbors’ land; no source confirms it, so treat it as a legend. English Wiktionary simply lists it as an idiom for pinning the blame on someone.
Mistakes learners make with Cargar el muerto
Mixing up “cargarle el muerto a alguien” (pinning the blame on someone) with “cargar con el muerto” (being the one left holding the blame). One little “con” switches who suffers.
Other Spanish idioms like Cargar el muerto
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