/teˈneɾ ˈpotɾa/ lit. ‘to have a hernia’
Spanish idiom, colloquial. To be lucky, often by pure chance.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Spanish speaker.
How do people use Tener potra
?
Colloquial Spanish from Spain, for luck you did nothing to earn: the lucky goal, the exam question you happened to study. It’s often an exclamation, “¡qué potra tienes!” (you lucky thing!), with a touch of envy. Friendly among friends, but too slangy for a job interview.
Also said ¡qué potra!, de potra, por potra
Tener potra
in real sentences
-
Tiene una potra increíble.
He has amazing luck.
Tatoeba, sentence by Shishir, translation by DJ_Saidez, CC BY 2.0 FR
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¡Hala, qué gol! ¡Qué potra tienes, chaval!
Wow, what a goal! You’re really lucky, kid!
Tatoeba, sentence by Seael, translation by sangelo, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Tener potra
come from?
“Potra” first meant a hernia, especially a scrotal one: Spanish Wiktionary gives that sense from the 1925 Real Academia dictionary and lists “good luck” as a colloquial meaning beside it. Why a hernia should mean luck is unclear. English Wiktionary repeats the story that people with a hernia could feel rain coming and so had a lucky sixth sense, and the Real Academia calls the word’s origin uncertain. Treat the weather story as a theory.
Mistakes learners make with Tener potra
Mixing it up with “potro”: “una potra” is also a young female horse, but the luck meaning only works in the fixed phrases “tener potra”, “¡qué potra!” and “de potra”. Nobody says “tener un potro”.
Other Spanish idioms like Tener potra
Spot a mistake in Tener potra
?
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