Gancho

When I was young, I was terribly confused by all of the things that were translated as gancho in Colombian Spanish. If I remember correctly, gancho included clothes pins, hair clips, hangers, safety pins, paper clips, and what might now be called "chip clips".

I learned a great deal of my early Spanish vocabulary while tagging along grocery shopping. I distinctly remember standing in the laundry detergent aisle, seeing the word gancho on clothes pins and wondering why the same word was used for items several rows over.

But this morning I couldn't find my hair claw, and as I searched on my night stand which also serves as desk, laundry counter, pantry space, and book shelf, it occurred to me that perhaps there isn't as much difference among what can be translated gancho as I thought.

But so you know, clothes pins work better for holding up hair than do paper clips, binder clips, and safety pins.