#688 Understanding Clips

So sometimes, I’m pretty sure someone who doesn’t know how to use a thesaurus is in charge of a lot of product labels.
I’m looking at a paper clip box the other day. And on it, in Spanish and English, are words that describe paper clips. I actually like bilingual boxes, as I am often curious what a thing in English is called in other languages.
I remember buying a vacuum cleaner once and seeing that the term “crevice tool,” which, frankly, no home appliance should be without, was rendered in Spanish as “tubo de estension.” Tubo de estension became a wonderful phrase my friends and I bandied about for humorous purposes for a long time.
Oh, quickly, my husband, I need the tubo de estension. I see a bunny of dust!
Anyhow, you’d be interested to know that the two words “paper clips” translate into Spanish as sujetapapeles. It is rendered on the box as one word. I tried looking it up in a Spanish/English online dictionary but the closest I could come was papel, meaning paper.
The other word on the box they translate into Spanish is antideslizantes. Which, I know, sounds like something you give your sleezy aunt to make her behave better or something. Anti-de-sleeze-Aunty.
Okay, It’s a stretch.
Antideslizante translates back into the English on the box as non-skid. But it actually translates as non-slide.
Cause here’s the rub. I’m not sure skid is the word to use for a paperclip anyhow. Non-slip would be more like it.
What really is the difference between a slip and a skid? They are listed as synonymous in thesauri, but you know and I know, people typically use the word skid to describe larger things.
I may make a tiny slip but it takes a lot of movement to leave a skid mark.
Skids are larger issues than slips. Because people may slip up, but they definitely head down when they’re on the skids.
So, unless a paper clip is attached to a prescription for an anti-depressant I don’t think it can be non-skid in any language.
See?
Si.
America, ya gotta love it.