Juntaletras is a derogatory term used to refer to a writer or someone who makes a living from the craft of writing. Writer of little importance.
SYNONYMS FOR Juntaletras
Ink sucker
Pencil pusher
Derogatory noun
Scrivener
Writer of little importance
ORIGIN OF Juntaletras
The reality is that if we look in the dictionary we will never find what a juntaletras is, however Google will tell us that this is a noun that is currently in full use.
Without any kind of context, it is evident that a juntaletras can be a derogatory word and that it is used to refer with contempt to those who make a living from the craft of writing, as if to imply that their work is nothing more than a mechanical action of putting one character after another, without any other value than what is expected and proper of a writer.
But it is a fact that nowadays everyone writes, from an email to a post on Instagram. The act of writing is part of our daily life, it is therapeutic and helps to order ideas, this is why we could all consider ourselves as juntaletras.
The first ones were called folicularios and in turn, the writers who were treated with these terms were called “chupatintas” or “plumíferos”, and the works they wrote were also treated with derogatory words like “coplones” instead of “coplas” or “libracos”, “librachos” or “librejos” instead of “libros”.
Many of these words were short-lived but juntaletras will surely outlive pens, ballpoint pens, typewriters and computers.
CURIOSITIES OF Juntaletras
When there was still no mechanism for writing, scribes and more specifically clerks, who used the pen in the exercise of their trade, used the term to verbally assault.