Insumos: the word irritating half of Spain, for no reason

Insumos: the word irritating half of Spain, for no reason

Ten days ago, a journalist from El Mundo said live on air: "The heat has arrived early, given it's July 2nd." The quip earned him the usual ribbing, but what really fired up a certain audience was that, in that same newscast, he referred to the batches of medical supplies donated to Venezuela with the word 'insumos'. The term, once confined to economics textbooks and production processes, has crept into journalistic language with a virulence that gives part of the public opinion hives.

The reason for the anger? That 'insumos' sounds like an anglicism disguised as jargon, or worse, like the 'latin' of the language — a drift some attribute to Latin American influence in the media. But the awkward fact is that the word is not new. In economics, 'insumos' refers to the inputs needed to produce a good: raw materials, labor, energy. In agriculture, seeds and fertilizers. In healthcare, syringes, gauze and reagents. The Venezuelan philologist Ángel Rosenblat already recorded it in the 1960s. The RAE (Spain's Royal Spanish Academy) has admitted it since 2001.

What has changed is not the vocabulary, but the channel. For its critics, a journalist using 'insumos' where 'medical supplies' or 'provisions' used to be said is a symptom of cultural colonization. The argument is that the media uncritically copy the Spanish of Latin America, and that the public, used to swallowing without chewing, repeats it. But the same accusation could be made about half a dozen anglicisms nobody questions anymore. The complaint sounds more like nostalgia for a pure language that never existed.

The paradox of linguistic purism

The debate is revealing: those who complain most about 'insumos' usually defend using 'email' or 'meeting' without batting an eye. The selection is arbitrary. 'Insumos' also has an advantage over 'inputs': it is pronounced naturally in Spanish and avoids the raw anglicism. At bottom, what is being debated is not the word, but cultural hierarchy. That a term arrives from Latin America rather than New York is already grounds for suspicion.

And while some curse the journalist who said 'insumos', language keeps its course. Probably, in a decade nobody will remember the controversy and the word will be as integrated as 'ordenador' or 'fútbol'. What irritates is not the word, but who brought it.