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\"La posición de los empleados públicos nunca ha sido holgada\".

English translation: Civil servant salaries have never been generous.

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Spanish term or phrase:\"La posición de los empleados públicos nunca ha sido holgada\".
English translation:Civil servant salaries have never been generous.

19:05 Feb 15, 2018
    The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2018-02-18 19:54:08 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)


Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - History / political sociology
Spanish term or phrase: \"La posición de los empleados públicos nunca ha sido holgada\".
I have difficulties with HOLGAR. The RAE (see below) provides several meanings.

This quote appears in an academic article about the position of civil servants in 1920 Chile. They started to take a more combative stance and insist on better salaries, and newspaper article comments that their stance is totally understandable, since "la posicion de los empleados públicos nunca ha sido holgada".
Thanks in advance!

holgar [Conjugar el verbo holgar]

Del lat. tardío follicāre 'soplar, respirar'.

Conjug. actual c. contar.

U. solo en infinit., en ger., en part. y en 3.ª pers. en acep. 5.

1. intr. Estar ocioso, no trabajar.

2. intr. Descansar, tomar aliento después de una fatiga.

3. intr. alegrarse (‖ recibir o sentir alegría). U. m. c. prnl.

4. intr. Dicho de una cosa inanimada: Estar sin ejercicio o sin uso.

5. intr. Sobrar, ser inútil. Huelgan los comentarios.

6. intr. desus. Yacer, estar, parar.

7. prnl. Divertirse, entretenerse con gusto.
anya doherty
Chile
Local time: 22:12
Civil servant salaries have never been generous.
Explanation:
Just a question of expression in English, I feel we would be more straightforward.

We say civil servants for public employees in Australia.
Selected response from:

Lindsay329
Australia
Local time: 12:12
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +2Civil servant salaries have never been generous.
Lindsay329
4 +2The situatio of public servants has never been comfortable
Iñaki Vega Bayo
3the position of civil servants has never been a comfortable one
Barbara Cochran, MFA


  

Answers


4 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
The situatio of public servants has never been comfortable


Explanation:
No se porque no aparece en esas definiciones pero en ese contexto holgada se refiere a cómoda.
https://www.linguee.com/english-spanish/search?source=auto&q...
Acá puedes ver que efectivamente se puede utilizar en ese sentido.



Iñaki Vega Bayo
United States
Local time: 20:12
Native speaker of: Native in SpanishSpanish
Notes to answerer
Asker: thanks, I did check Linguee, but got distracted also by the variety of meanings - ample, baggy, etc. So thank you for clarifying.


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  philgoddard: I never knew Linguee had a proper dictionary, as opposed to a corpus of often wrong translations.
1 hr
agree  Albion Land
2 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

8 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
the position of civil servants has never been a comfortable one


Explanation:

Meaning that those civil servants find it difficult to exist and support their families on their current salaries.

http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=holg...


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 12 mins (2018-02-15 19:18:06 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Their economic position in the general government scheme or hierarchy.

Barbara Cochran, MFA
United States
Local time: 22:12
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 16
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +2
Civil servant salaries have never been generous.


Explanation:
Just a question of expression in English, I feel we would be more straightforward.

We say civil servants for public employees in Australia.

Lindsay329
Australia
Local time: 12:12
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Robert Carter
8 hrs
agree  Chema Nieto Castañón: Clean and clear ;)
2 days 6 hrs
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