Brazzil
January 2002
Language
English for Brazucas 4
Inflammable = Flammable?
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.
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
