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Portuguese Words of English Origin Posted by on Feb 15, 2011 in Vocabulary

Between globalization and the rise of technology, you’ll find dozens, if not hundreds of Portuguese words that come directly from English. In some cases, the spelling of words are changed to adapt to the Portuguese pronunciation, but the words essentially stay the same. In Portuguese, these words are known as anglicismos. Here are some examples:

picape [pee-kah-pee] = pick-up (truck, SUV)

nocaute [noh-ck-ow-chee] = knockout (in boxing)

blecaute [bleh-ck-ow-chee] = blackout (electricity outage)

bife [bee-fee] = beef

futebol [foo-chee-bow] = football (soccer)

site [cy-chee] = site (website)

hit [hee-chee] = hit (like Top 40 hits)

performance [per-fohr-mahn-see] = performance (like computer performance)

designer [deh-zein-ehr] = designer (fashion, etc)

show [show] = show (convert)

blog [blog-ee] = blog

reset [heh-seh-chee] = reset

play [plei] = play (press play)

ranking [hah-nking] = ranking

piercing [peer-sing] = body piercing

Can you think of any others?

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Comments:

  1. Tricia:

    pique-nique/piquenique = picnic right?

  2. ana australiana:

    Os tênis = sneakers/tennis shoes

    O playboy = womanizer, rich kid (see also discussion here!)

    🙂

  3. Marina:

    Shopping, This is a noun like the name of a place is Shopping Ibirapuera.

    Shoe-la the smell of stinky feet, I don’t know how they spell it.

    Forau from for-all meaning it was a big todo and everyone was there.

  4. Tom:

    Laptop = laptop

  5. Erick:

    Legal – Cool

  6. Molly:

    fast food (fastchee foodjee)! also i love x-burger, though i’m not sure if it fits in this category!

  7. TomL:

    I discovered one in my Portuguese lesson last night. There is something like a *very* small apartment called a “Kitnet” – it didn’t mean anything to me until my teacher said the word: ‘kitchnetch’ – like Kitchenette (I think!)

  8. Flávia Magalhães:

    Hi Rachel

    I guess you meant “conCert” not “conVert” after the definition of “show”.

  9. Jair:

    Muita palavras são usadas para designar determinada ação ou coisas e as pessoas nem se dão conta de que a palavra que estão usando poderia ter sido empregada em português mesmo.Ex:- vou fazer um “check up” do coração – ou vou fazer “um exame” do coração