Oenology

El trasiego por gravedad trata el vino con más cuidado: racking by gravity treats the wine more gently. Racking — one of three English expressions el trasiego reaches, and the three have nothing to do with one another. In the cellar it is the operation on this list: moving wine off its sediment from one vessel into the next. Outside the cellar the same noun describes the constant coming and going of a busy place — el trasiego de una cocina is the back and forth of a kitchen at service, and English has no single noun for that either. And in colloquial use it is heavy drinking: trasegar una botella is to knock a bottle back. One image holds all three, something poured out of one place into another, but English wants racking, or comings and goings, or a verb about drinking, and never lets one word carry the lot.