Posted in English, Portuguese

Homework

Expressions relating to eating and drinking, fixed homework, aiming to find equivalent expressions in English. Most don’t have literal identical versions in English, so I’m just looking for something more less equivalent.

Trincar qualquer coisa (Trincar =morder) 

Existem muitas opções. A minha preferida é “Have a little smackerel of something”, que é uma frase do livro Winnie the Pooh

Dar ao Dente 

Não há nada igual, mas talvez “nibble” seja a palavra mais parecida, uma vez que implica o uso dos dentes. 

Morfar (Morfar = comer ) 

Também posso sugerir várias alternativas mas acho que “scoff” é a mais próxima 

Encher o Bandulho (Bandulho =barriga) 

Acho que diríamos “fill your belly” 

Encher a mula (mula = mule)

Não temos uma expressão igual. Às vezes falamos de “fill your boots” (“encher as botas”) que pode ser semelhante mas não tem necessariamente a ver com comida. Pode significar “faz qualquer coisa tanto quanto quiseres”. Por exemplo, “Queres colher rosas no meu jardim? Vá lá! Enche as botas!”

Ferrar o dente

Diríamos “Get my teeth into” alguma coisita. 

Estar com larica (larica =erva daninha mas neste contexto quer dizer “fome”) 

Equivalente a “To feel peckish” 

Enfardar (enfardar = comer muito) 

Equivalente a “gorge” ou “binge” 

Matar o Bicho

Esta expressão pode significar “tomar o pequeno almoço”, ou até “dar uma gorjeta” mas para tratar uma ressaca bebendo aguardente em jejum é chamado “hair of the dog” em inglês. Se fossemos mordidos por um cão, é óbvio que precisaríamos dum pêlo do cão que nos mordeu. [this one is sort of complicated too and probably doesn’t quite mean “hair of the dog” but sometimes it’s just breakfast (implying the “bicho” is hunger) and sometimes just means booze for breakfast (the background explained in a one-minute-long video on this page)

Afogar as mágoas 

A única frase que tem uma equivalente muito próxima: to drown ones sorrows.

Dar de beber à dor

Hum… Drink to forget (beber para esquecer)? Não é igual, mas não consigo me lembrar de uma expressão melhor . 

Estar/ficar bem aviado (aviar =preparar) 

Diríamos “to be well-oiled”. Existem outras expressões mas acho que olear um avião ou um veículo é necessário antes da viagem e daí escolhi esta! [i got the translation slightly wrong originally. There are a few meanings for the word aviar in Priberam and I think I was lulled  by the similarity to “avião” to think of it as preparing for a trip, but it can be other kinds of preparation. For example, here’s a page telling EU citizens how to have their prescription made up in another EU country, and the word used is aviar. I think “Well oiled still works as an equivalent even if it isn’t quite as good as I thought it was]

Beber de caixão à cova (caixão = caixa grande para conter um cadáver; cova = o buraco onde se enterra o caixão) 

Mais uma vez temos muitas expressões tipo “tie one on” ou “go on a bender” 

Emborcar 

Podemos dizer “neck”, que nem sequer é um verbo, mas se fosse uma palavra portuguesa, seria “pescoçar”! 

Apanhar uma piela (piela = estado de estar bêbado)

Embora tenhamos um monte de adjetivos significando “bêbado” acho que não temos um substantivo no nosso calão que represente o estado de embriaguez. Tanto quanto sei, o único exemplo é “swerve” na expressão americana “Get your swerve on”, ou seja, bebe tanto que não consegues andar em linha recta. 

Enfrascar-se (enfrascar-se = meter em frascos) 

Dizemos “crawl into a bottle” que soa muito parecido mas o significado é mais perto de “Afogar as mágoas”. (after I wrote this I remembered that there are a couple of slightly antiquated expressions for drunkenness that are a bit closer: “Potted” and “pickled” both seem like the kind of thing you’d find in a PG Wodehouse novel when a member of the Drones Club had had one too many cocktails but they’re pretty good synonyms I reckon!)

Posted in English

Vir à Baila

After sniffing the “Erva-de-namorar” mentioned in yesterday’s post, the narrator says that whenever boys discussed girls who might be up for a bit of whatever the rural, early twentieth century portuguese equivalent of rumpy-pumpy might be, her name “vinha à baila”.

I could guess the meaning from the context, but to break it down, baila is a mention, or something that is to be talked about, and vir à baila is an expression meaning to come up for discussion.

Baila is a bit deceptive in that it looks like it ought to be something to do with bailar (which is a synonym of dançar) and baile (ball, but the kind of ball Cinderela goes to, not the kind Ronaldoella kicks around a field). Whether or not the two words were linked together at some point in the past, I’m not sure, but they don’t even share a priberam page now, so they’re not seen as part of the same family of words, as far as I can see.

Mas é claro que vais ao baile!
Posted in English

Flilping Hlelck

⚠️I originally scheduled this post for a bit closer to the date but I’ve just noticed the free tickets are only available till tomorrow so I’ve bumped it up the running order a bit!⚠️

Fellow book readers in and around London might be interested to check out this literary fair being held on the 31st of May. It’s aiming to cultivate literature in portuguese in the UK. Note, I didn’t say portuguese literature, but literature in portuguese, so a couple of the people on the panel discussions are portuguese but there’s an angolano, a moçambicano and half a dozen brasileiras… Um… Yes, I think I got the word ending right there, I’m pretty sure all the Brazilian reps are women so no 20p fine for me!

It’s on a Friday and I can’t afford to take a whole day off, but I’ve booked a (free!) ticket for the afternoon, and it looks like they have some interesting sessions planned.

Anyway, if that sounds interesting, here’s their Instagram so you can find out more, and the event subscription page is on Eventbrite here.

Posted in English

Setôra

I mentioned the word “Stôra” a few months ago, and I’ve just seen another version of it: “Setôra”, in a book by Alice Vieira. Senhora + Doutora =Setôra. Such an odd-looking word to use to refer to your teacher!

Posted in English

TFW You Get The Joke

Smug faced rabbit

One of the best feelings in the world is getting a joke in portuguese that requires not only a decent grasp of the language but also a bit of background knowledge, so I made a little happy/smug face when I saw this joke from Hugo Van der Ding

Bazar is obviously a noun in the shop sign because Bazar can mean the same as the English word Bazaar. Well they’re probably both derived from Arabic aren’t they? No, Google says Persian. Anyway, so this is the Carmo Bazaar. Fine. But bazar can also mean something like go away very quickly. So it’s something like “skeddaddle” or “get lost” or “buzz off”.

So Marcelo Caetano, the guy who took over from Salazar as dictator after he had an argument with a chair, was holed up in o Quartel do Carmo, headquarters of the Guarda Nacional Repúblicana and after a tense stand off he was made to surrender to General Spinola and then told to push off into exile. It’s a solid pun and I approve.

Posted in English

Newsprint Time Machine

The Guardian has republished its archive story from 50 years ago about the revolution. It’s pretty thorough and covers the background to the revolution, the main players and some of the more dramatic events, like the incident where the tank commander orders his men to fire on the rebels but they refuse. It’s a tense moment in the movie Capitães de Abril, but I was never sure if it was real or an embellishment.

Posted in English

A Commercial Break: Books and Where to Read Them

I mention books on here a lot. Wook have what looks like a pretty generous sale to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution so if you want to have someone fill a box with literature and have it shipped across the sea, this is probably a good way to do it.

25 de Abril Wook Sale
(affiliate link)

They say books can bring down dictatorships, but so can other inanimate objects, so if you need somewhere to read your book, you could always buy the most effective weapon against dictatorships Portugal has yet devised: a chair. They look great don’t they? I’m a bit intimidated by the lack of a price though. I’d like one but I feel like it might be one of those “If you have to ask how much it is, you can’t afford it” situations.

What do chairs have to do with dictatorships? Um… well, nothing really, I’m just being daft, but Salazar died in 1970 after being incapacitated for two years because he’d fallen out of a chair, so if you are looking for an excuse to buy a new chair, there’s your excuse. It’s to show your support for Democracy!

Oh my god, that’s two posts in a row in english. I’d better get my act together