Surfaces and materials

A material is described on two levels: what it is, and how its surface feels. The second is the harder one. Áspero and rugoso are both « rough » and do not mean the same thing: one scratches, the other has a structure. The word to carry away is el tacto, in el tacto graso and el tacto frío del metal. Spanish uses it for three things English keeps apart: the sense itself, which English calls « touch »; the way one particular surface behaves under the hand, which English calls « the feel » and which is the sense in this list; and knowing how to handle people, which is « tact », tener mucho tacto. Three words for one, and the third has travelled far enough that « the tact of the metal » is not a sentence about a chair.