This post is about unpacking an interesting short video from Portuguese Dips a couple of years ago in November 2021. It’s part of a series about Portuguese idioms. On day 4 he talks about “Fazer Trinta Por Uma Linha“. He’s very good at these capsule summaries, and he definitely gives you all you need to start using it; basically it means they’re a handful.
But I was curious about the origin of the expression as well as how to use it. Well, as Westley says in The Princess Bride, “Get used to disappointment” because nobody seems to know. Andreia Vale, in “Puxar a Brasa à Nossa Sardinha” says there’s no origin known but tries to infer it. She points to thirty being number commonly used to denote human accomplishments, but the only examples she gives are “estar com 30 sentidos” which, ok, is fairly relevant, and the thirty pieces of silver paid to Judas… which I would say is not a good example of human accomplishment, on the whole. “Por uma linha” is like “a fio” or “a eito” (which came up in yesterday’s lyrics), being like “on the trot” or “in a row”. So they’re doing thirty things, one after another, resulting in total confusion.
In the same video he refers to “a canalha” which can either mean a gang of villains or a group of children. Hmmmm… Then there are words for naughtiness and general mischeif: irrequieto, traquino and asneira and finally he uses another expression “Têm de ter um olho nelas” which is obviously like the english expression: they have to keep an eye on them.
Quite a lot to pack into such a short video!
Luso 