estar entre Pinto y Valdemoro

== Spanish == === Etymology === Literally, “be between Pinto and Valdemoro”. Pinto and Valdemoro are two towns in the province of Madrid that used to be divided by a stream. The popular etymology is that once upon a time, a drunk man was walking along the river, jumping from one bank to the other and saying he was in Pinto, then Valdemoro, then Pinto, then Valdemoro again. After a while, he fell into the stream and then announced he was “between Pinto and Valdemoro”. Other versions of the etymology allude to the kings of the House of Habsburg, who were said to be “between Pinto and Valdemoro” when frequenting a whorehouse between the two towns. Yet another version refers to wines. Valdemoro was famed for being of the highest quality in the land, whereas that of Pinto was a lower quality; thus a wine that was “between Pinto and Valdemoro” was one of mediocre quality. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /esˌtaɾ ˌentɾe ˌpinto i baldeˈmoɾo/ [esˌt̪aɾ ˌẽn̪.t̪ɾe ˌpĩn̪.t̪o i β̞al̪.d̪eˈmo.ɾo] Syllabification: es‧tar en‧tre Pin‧to y Val‧de‧mo‧ro === Adverb === estar entre Pinto y Valdemoro (idiomatic, Spain) in two minds, undecided (colloquial, Spain, idiomatic) to be half gone, to be three sheets to the wind === References === === Further reading === “estar alguien entre Pinto y Valdemoro”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025