What Brazucas call bife is actually uma posta de carne
and may be prepared with all sorts of meats.
So never ask for a beef of fish or beef of pork.
The waiter will have to suppress his laughter.
Instead,
enjoy a broiled salmon steak.
By
Wilson Velloso
A very nice reader, C.P., asked which is the right form of the word in the title. Well, dear Cláudia, like in many cases
when we deal with language, any language, the answer is
both. We could simplify things saying that
flammable is preferred in the U.S. while
inflammable is the British choice. Yes, it would be simpler but not 100% true. What is true is that
inflammable (inflamável) is several centuries older, as it comes directly from Latin. There isn’t in Portuguese a form
flamável—not yet, por enquanto.
Written either way, the term means “capable of catching fire”
(que pode pegar fogo). Then, why two different
versions for it? Apparently, for reasons of safety, specially to warn people that a substance—such as alcohol, gasoline, paper,
cloth—can ignite and burn, thus becoming a hazard for humans, a few men in control deleted the prefix
in, which usually changes a word.
Since this is a negative prefix, its use is to show the contrary of another word. Thus
possible becomes impossible
(possível-impossível). Note that it can be
im or in, depending on the letter that follows it. It’s the same in Portuguese:
im before b and p, in when it precedes any other letter. To complicate matters, English has another negative suffix
un that works the same way: unable is the contrary of
able (incapaz-capaz). All this song and dance
(cantilena) serves to emphasize that
inflammable does NOT mean “non-flammable.”
As a person advances in the study of grammar, he/she learns that the meaning of prefixes—and suffixes, the little
end words that also change the significance of a term when added to its tail—may vary quite widely. Actually, there is
nothing strange in different meanings for a word as we already know, with or without the prefixes and suffixes. We have already
seen some examples of that, but there are thousands of examples and it is good to learn a few more different meanings.
Let’s take an innocent word such as hand. We know it means
mão. But it also describes a hand of bananas
(penca de bananas), a measure of four inches
(um palmo de 10 centímetros), the
hands of a clock (ponteiros de um relógio),
help (mão, mãozinha)
as in give me a hand (me dá uma mãozinha), a
hand of cards (mão de cartas de
baralho), a factory hand, a deck hand, a
field hand (operário de fábrica, taifeiro, marinheiro de navio mercante, peão de
fazenda); hand meaning skill (perícia,
esmero no trabalho) this piece of furniture shows the hand of a cabinetmaker
= este móvel revela a perícia do marceneiro.
As is the case with most English nouns
(substantivos) hand is also a verb. It means
to deliver (entregar), to help, to
assist, to direct (ajudar, assistir, dirigir).
I handed the package to the postal clerk =
entreguei o pacote à funcionária do
correio.
Used with prepositions
(preposições) hand acquires many more meanings.
Hands up (mãos ao alto!), hands off!
(não tocar, tirar a mão),
hands down (ganhar fácil, sem problema _
the Blues beat the Reds hands down =
os Azuis derrotaram os Vermelhos na
maciota), hand in (entregar um objeto, encomenda, preso, dar entrada em documento).
The teenagers handed in the pickpocket to the police, The mailman handed me a letter, Olga handed in her paper to the teacher, Tomorrow I will
hand in our petition at the County Office _
Amanhã vou à repartição da comarca dar entrada em nosso requerimento.
About two months ago, I mentioned the difficulty
Brazucas may have to identify birds and other animals, trees,
flowers, fruits. Some suggested that I compiled a short list of such words, to be added to as requests come in. Everybody knows that dog is cachorro—or more correctly cão, because
cachorro is more like filhote—and
cat is gato, but do you know any synonyms
(sinônimos)? For instance, pup,
puppy for cãezinhos,
cachorrinhos? What about canine and
K-9, dogs employed to follow a trail, sniff and identify narcotics, etc? They are simply
cães policiais.
The diminutive of cat is a kitty and several types of cats are called
pussycats, pusses, and pussies. Usually cats are
referred to in the feminine. Thus: my pussy hates her anti-flea treatments.
I trust that all of you are familiar with another meaning
of pussy. If you don’t, you will find out pretty soon.
A horse is a cavalo and a mare
is égua. A potro might be
colt, foal, as a potra and or potranca
is called a filly. A boi is a
steer, and a touro is a bull.
A bezerro is a calf (which also means
barriga-da-perna) sometimes called a bullock.
A fairly well-grown bezerra ou vaquilhona
is a heifer. When she mates (acasala)
with a bull and produces a calf she becomes a
cow. A milk cow is a vaca leiteira.
The word beef means carne bovina.
What Brazucas call bife (an ancient linguistic
confusion) is actually uma posta de carne
and may be prepared with all sorts of meats, including
chicken breast (peito de frango),
liver (fígado), pork
(carne de porco ), mutton ( carne de
carneiro), veal (vitela),or even certain
fish (peixe grande como atum, bacalhau, cavala).
So never ask for a beef of fish or beef of pork.
The waiter will have to suppress his laughter. Instead, enjoy a broiled salmon
steak.
Fruit trees have simple names. Usually it is the same name of the fruit followed by word tree, such as
orange, apple, pear, persimmon, apricot, peach, banana, loquat
respectively laranjeira,
macieira, pereira, pé de
caqui, pé de damasco,
pessegueiro, bananeira,
nespereira.
Grapes (uvas) grow on vines
(parreiras), while strawberries
(morangos) grow on the ground. Some other time we
will deal with the great variety of berries,
collectively known in Portuguese as amoras.
A few trees to close the road (trancar a estrada).
Palm tree, palmeira; elm tree,
olmo; pine tree, pinheiro;
fir, abeto; maple, bordo; laurel,
loureiro or louro; California laurel,
louro amarelo; plane tree, plátano.
Wilson Velloso © 2002
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