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Origins of Portuguese Expressions Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 in Culture, Learning

Today we’re going to look at a few Portuguese expressions and their origins in the state of Minas Gerais.

1. Lavar à égua

This expressions means “to do well,” “to have success,” or to “enjoy oneself.” It originated in Minas Gerais during the gold boom, when horses and donkeys were used to haul the gold out of the mines. The gold dust would get all over the horse, so the miners would “wash” the horse off to get the gold when they left the mine. “Égua” is a female horse.

Hoje irei a três festas. Vou lavar à égua.

2. Pé-de-moleque

This is a type of candy typical of Minas Gerais, made with peanuts. In the old days, women would set the candy out on the windowsills to dry and cool off, and children would steal them. As a result, the original name was “pede moleque!” as in “Ask for it, kid!” Now, it is written as “Pé-de-moleque,” or child’s foot.

3. Enquanto descansa carrega pedra

This expression means that “it never ends” or that “there’s always more to do.” This also originated from the mining boom in Minas, when during their downtime, the miners would have to build rock walls to sustain the tunnels of the mine.

Quando chegar em casa após o trabalho, tenho que fazer o jantar e cuidar dos filhos. Enquanto descansa carrega pedra!

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Comments:

  1. Leonila:

    Gostei muito dos comentparios sobre nossas expressões.Seu blog é muito bom.

    Gosto imensamente do provérbio:
    CADA UM NO SEU CANTO CHORA SEU TANTO.

    Eu gostaria de comentá-lo, mas não falo ingl~es.

    Leonila

  2. Ana:

    I liked your post, though I’d like to make a tiny correction. Where you wrote:
    Quando chegar em casa após o trabalho, tenho que fazer o jantar e cuidar dos filhos. Enquanto descansa carrega pedra!
    it should read Enquanto descansO, carregO pedra.
    The verbs in the sentence must be conjugated according to their subject. One more example:
    As mulheres trabalham fora e em casa cuidam dos filhos. Enquanto descansam, carregam pedra.

  3. Felipe Mobus:

    Regarding the first expression: it should read “lavar a égua”, that is, without “à” (crase). Explanation follows.

    The verb “lavar” is a verbo transitivo direto (VTD) and, iirc, as such, allow no preposition before its object. In other words, you would NOT say “lavar ao gato”, because “ao” is the contraction of “a”+”o”(preposition + article). The trick here is changing the object for a masculine object and see if “ao” would happen – if it does, then the original sentence is almost guaranteed to have crase.

    There is, however, an exception, where crase would appear after a VTD. A crase would happen if your object is expressing a manner, a fashion (“moda”), in which the verb could be performed or a variation of some substantive. That is, “lavar à égua” would be “lavar à moda da égua”, roughly translatable as “wash (something) the same way a mare would”. An example for substantive would be “bife à milanesa” = “bife à moda milanesa” = “beef prepared in the milanese manner”.