¿Te gusta esto?
Can you do this?
What do you do for a living?
How many of those have you had?
What do you know about them?
¿Cuánto me puedes prestar?
What did you say?
These are all pretty simple questions, right? For the most part they are. Except for those rare occasions when we have something to say that we know we shouldn’t. Or better yet, when we want to say so much, but have promised ourselves or someone else that we will show restraint. In those instances, as my jefitos would say, hasta quiere uno que se parta la tierra y se lo trague a uno. In other words, you feel like you’re between a rock and a hard place… and the person prying, asking 21 questions, seems just as committed to: a) either making you uncomfortable, or b) dragging the truth out of you one way or another.
In those instances Anjelica suggests the following word: ¡Nanais!
I say Anjelica suggests that word because she was the one that sent it to me in a text message a couple of days ago. To which I replied “huh?” She then proceeded to explain that it means nada, nothing, kind of the same thing as shrugging your shoulders and smiling when you are made to feel awkward and don’t know what else to do. According to tuBabel, that’s precisely what ¡Nanais! means. A complete and utter negation in one simple solitary word.
So there you go. Next time you feel like you’re being coerced into saying something you don’t want to say, just shrug your shoulders (or not) and say !Nanais!
