Old Argentinian facon ...

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Chris Evans

Hi Ian,
I do not speak Portuguese, but faca simply means knife and the Spanish adopted this term in some parts of their country. Perhaps Fernando can correct me here. Not used much these days isn Spain and the Spanish version of e-bay will not recognize the word facon.
In Spanish if we attach "on" onto another word then it denotes a greater than normal size. So for example "navaja" is changed to "navajon", then it means that we are dealing with a large navaja. Same with faca and facon.
Hope this helps
Chris

Hi Chris,
Both faca and cuchillo were available in either Castillian and Portuguese, only that Spaniards basically use cuchillo, whereas Portuguese stayed with faca. Currently speacking, cuchillo in Spain and faca in Portugal, are the basic terms that cover the current kitchen, table and other non weapon knives and cutting utilities. Swaping of these terms, or their word derivations, or even the right context, determine the conotation or atribution of weapon .
Castillian facon, same as Portuguese facão both mean bigger sized facas, but such terms are more to sugest the weapon idea, rather than their dimension. Or if a Portuguese ( not so recently ) says someone has a cuchilho, he is referring to a concealed weapon. Again this is the generic situation, not having to relate to any sort of specific tipology.
Kind regards
fernando