invierno

invierno: rainy, or rainy season

You might have thought that invierno meant winter and verano meant summer, but really, in my experience in Colombia and El Salvador this is another one of those "the dictionary is lying" words. Ok, ok, a word where the connotation is quite different than the denotation. In El Salvador it really only meant rainy season. Here in Colombia it often means this (and not just the one rainy season mind you, there are several in a year) - but people also use it to mean just rainy, as in "hizo mucho invierno ayer". Verano generally means not just dry but hot and sunny, as in, "por las tardes hace verano". We have had a lot of invierno around here lately, and far too much of it has been making its way inside our apartment.