“HABLANDO DEL REY DE ROMA”
Today we are going to explain the Spanish idiom or saying “hablando del rey de Roma”. In fact, the full version is “hablando del rey de Roma, por la puerta asoma”. The equivalent in English would be “you speak of the devil, and he shall appear”. It’s used when you are talking about someone and this person comes in wherever you are at that exact moment.
This expression is used in other languages too, although with different protagonists. In the UK, Italy, and Germany, they use the evil, instead of the king; in French and Polish, it’s the wolf the one who shows up.
According to Espasa Encyclopedia, the word ruin appears instead of rey in the oldest version of the expression to describe people who misbehave and usually show up when they are least expected, normally to surprise everyone else. Over time, the popular lexicon would modify the phrase replacing ruin by rey.
