O orelhão escangalhado

"Orelhão" is Portuguese for "big ear," but it has a more common everyday meaning. It's the word for the strangely (to an American's eye) shaped public telephone seen throughout Brazil. They're treated creatively all over the country. I've seen examples of them in the shapes of exotic animals at phones in the zoo, shaped like a coconut on the beach, and some just painted in festive colors.

My favorite song from the Seu Jorge show was aquela Pretinha (São Gançalo). It has a great repeated line "o orelhão da minha rua estava escangalhado o meu cartão tava zerado mas você creia se quiser." I didn't recognize the word "escangalhado." I would normally think to use "quebrada" for something that wasn't working.

I found a funny blog entry trying to explain the difference.

Quebrar é quando não tem mais conserto e escangalhar é quando dá pra consertar.

Quebrar is when it can't be fixed and escangalhar is when repair is possible.

That's probably not quite right, but it seems to be used for things that are out of order.

Snug as a bug in a rug = aconchegado

From our lesson about hostels (albergues) this past week, we were unable to figure out one of the adjectives used to distinguish hostels from hotels. The phrase went something like

Albergues são mais simples e aconchegados aconchegantes que hotéis

After some searching on Google, I think I've come up with a reasonable translation for "aconchegar" and its derivitives "aconchegante" and "aconchegado".

Common phrases including this word are "no teu seio aconchegado" and "no teu colo aconchegado". It's also used to describe the best kind of sleep you can get. The word also appears in geographic descriptions such as "é nessa praia qeu o mar se aconchega" in verb form.

The closest I can get is that it means "snug" and the verb aconchegar means "snuggle." I would agree that the combination of a tighter space and homier feel makes a hostel snugger than a hotel.

In fact, upon making sure I spelled "homier" correctly, I ran into Answer.com's Portuguese definition of "homey" as "aconchegante."

Cadê

The shortest way to ask "where is" in (Brazilian) Portuguese is with a single word: "Cadê"

I have one informal source that says

Cadê é sim regionalismo do Brasil mas é somente usado em linguagem informal. Foi originado de que é feito de, que passou a quede e então a cadê.

I can't find anything to either confirm or deny that explanation, nor does the longer original phrase suggest the question "where is?" to me. What I can find are a lot of examples of its use. For one thing, one of Brazil's bigger search engines is called "Cadê?" and was acquired by Yahoo! in 2002. They kept the catchy name.

An interesting aspect of this word's use is that it doesn't change based on whether it's followed by a singular or plural noun. "Cadê seu amigo" or "Cadê seus amigos" -- tanto faz.

So the next time you're looking for something, think "cadê."

Festa Junina

Festa Junina #03
Originally uploaded by Limao.

There's are a few holidays in Brazil that aren't celebrated or recognized in the U.S. One of these is Festa Junina or June Fest. It's essentially a harvest festival and recalls rural traditions.

People dress up as country bumpkins and eat foods of the rural northeast. At the Festa Junina in which I participated, there was a lot of popcorn and roasted corn on the cob. Corn is harvested at that time of year.

You'll notice a that women typically put their hair in pig-tails and paint freckles on their cheeks. Men wear straw hats. There's also a lot of music and dancing. The music is "forró", Brazilian country music. People do a form of square dancing called "quadrilha". It's celebrated all over Brazil but especially in the "nordeste" where it originates.

This Wikipedia entry tells more.

Nautical notions

I was happy to recall a forgotten Portuguese phrase this week -- "ficar à toa". It's the verb for vegging out, being a couch potato, or not lifting a finger. It's clearly an idiom but it took me a while to unearth its roots. I eventually found this article that describes the nautical history of that phrase along with many other Portuguese expressions. Just a warning, parts of the article put on display some of the "machismo" embedded in common Portuguese sayings or "ditos."

Quoted from the article

A nautical metaphor which has gone so deep into Brazilian language that most Brazilians have forgotten its watery origins is the expression “à toa” or “à-toa,” which has come to have a broad spectrum of meanings. The literal meaning is “under tow,” that is a ship with no sails raised, no motion of its own, not setting its own course, only moving through the water because there is a tow rope pulling it along.

The phrase goes beyond "being lazy" and has more to do with giving up control, acting randomly without a plan. That randomness is emphasized in other phrases where "à toa" appears. For example, someone who "ri à toa" laughs for no good reason, at things that barely qualify as funny.

Until my next entry, eu vou ficar à toa.

Rua enfeitada

Rumo ao hexa?
Originally uploaded by Andre Sa.

I was listening to 98FM out of Rio de Janeiro on the morning of Brazil's debut in the World Cup. The announcer was asking callers about whether their street was "enfeitada." Enfeitar is to decorate or embellish. Here's an example of the kind of decorating that people are doing all over Brazil in their enthusiasm for the cup.

The sign in the forefront "Rumo ao Hexa" means loosely "Headed for the sixth" referring to the sixth time winning the World Cup. I can't wait until Brazil plays again!

Uma blogada

I mentioned at our last group meeting that when you're talking about using an object to hit someone, you can add a certain suffix to indicate its use for bludgeoning. That suffix is "-ada". I found an example to illustrate.

From comments by olhosatentos on a photo of a rainy day in Curitiba, we have

"Esses dias estava pensando, será que existe cidade pior que Curitiba para andar a pé na chuva?
Calçada ruim = molhar os pés.
Ruas ruins com depressões = tomar banho dos carros.
Povo com guarda-chuva = Andar embaixo das marquises, tomar banho dos carros e molhar os pés
Povo sem guarda-chuva = levar guarda-chuvada dos idiotas que andam com guarda-chuva embaixo das marquizes, molhar os pés e tomar banho dos carros!"

If you're getting smacked by a "guarda-chuva" (umbrella), you're "levando uma guarda-chuvada". There's Brazilian creativity for you.

The closest English example I can think of is if you're hit with a cane, you've received a caning. In Portuguese that form can be extended to getting an umbrellaing, a booking (livrada), a shoeing (sapatada), etc.