Spanish saying: Cuanto más viejo, más pellejo

Popular saying: “Cuanto más viejo, más pellejo”

This saying can be quite unpleasant considering the meaning of “pellejo” (skin) and even more so with “pellejo” here meaning “saggy skin”. We get a mental image of an old wrinkled face which has sagged due to old age.

The saying refers to a face that has been through a lot, a face that belongs to a person who and has gained more life knowledge than most. The saying also implies that a person has had to learn things “the hard way” living through difficult experiences.

So this saying has quite a serious meaning; “the older we get, the more skin we get” – as in “the older we get, the more skilled we become” in the crafty, cunning and mischievous tricks we pull. Think about that elderly neighbor that always gets what he wants in the neighborhood associations by pulling strings.

So is this a “good” or a “bad” saying? Let's just say that as we get older we realize more and more that not all things are black and white, but that they are different shades of grey.

Other popular Spanish Sayings

• A la fuerza ahorcan
• De noche todos los gatos son pardos
• Lo bueno, si es breve, dos veces bueno
• "Ya que la casa se quema, calentémonos en ella"
• "The house of the soap-maker is a slippery place"
• "Santo era Pedro y negó a su maestro"
• "Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada"
• "En Carnaval todo pasa, hasta los novios a las casas"