My friend Ary, a reporter famous for good scoops (furos)
was Killer Ary—no offense given or taken.

Wilson Velloso

There is little doubt that the worse offenders of Brazilian Portuguese are found in the media. Because newsmen (jornalistas) are always in a hurry, and "editing" in the English sense of the word practically doesn't exist in Brazil, all kinds of horrors crop in. Since the reading and listening public seldom bothers to protest, the language bears the brunt of the combined assaults of ignorance, lack of professional tradition and ethics, and a mere "we couldn't care less" attitude.

Every Brazilian who learns a foreign language fancies him/herself a translator and commits terrible errors that soon spread out, become the "right" term or expression. One such horror is Baleia assassina as a name for the playful, friendly, water zoos' star, the Orca orcinus—killer.

How come the orca turned a murderess in Brazil? Simple: it has teeth and, like so many land and water animals, is a cannibal. It sustains itself devouring other denizens of the ocean. The majority of the other whales, the big whales, merely open their mouths, swallow a lot of water and with it millions of microscopic animals, plankton, etc. which all die. Then they blow the water out and ingest the animals.

Yet, it is too much to expect that a cheap-rate Brazilian translator would know all that. To him/her, killer is somebody who kills. But there are many different meanings of killing. If you win a large amount of money at poker, you made a killing but you are NOT a murderer. If the editor of a publication orders a certain matter killed, he is saying only: remove it. If an employee stamps any document with VOID, he is "killing" it. In the postal service they do a lot of killing of stamps and nobody is prosecuted or goes to jail for it.

All carnivores kill the animals they eat, but have you ever heard of a lion, tiger, leopard, fox, being called an assassin? Killer can even be a term of praise. A person famous for doing a job quickly is sometimes called a killer. My friend Ary, a reporter for the Associated Press, famous for always getting good scoops (furos) in no time was Killer Ary—no offense given or taken. And all of us kill cockroaches, flies, spiders, mosquitoes, aphids, lice, caterpillars and other house and garden pests. Many boxers (pugilistas) have had the epithet added to their professional names: Killer Jones, Killer Joe Smith,

Actually, a type of kill is an old American word, from the Dutch kil. It means a channel, a brook (regato), creek (arroio), stream (ribeirão, córrego), either as a name in itself or tagged to another name, such as Kildare, Kilmartin, etc. Very common in Delaware. As is run (riacho) in Virginia, like in Bull Run, Roaches' Run and many other streams. In Maryland, the equivalent term is branch, Paint Branch, etc.

Before going much farther, I would like to thank Chris, a reader from Brazil, for his praise for this series, and for pointing out a slip-up of mine. Instead of writing acrophobia for "horror to, or fear of, heights", I wrote agoraphobia, which is, instead, "horror to, or fear of open spaces." We didn't agree as to how to pronounce a certain term, but that is just a moot point (ponto discutível). After all, English is a living and changing language.

A few years ago, no self-respecting writer would use two dwarfs. It had to be two dwarves (anão, anões), as it was hooves as plural of hoof, (cascos) as it was halves as plural of half. Even if Americans stick to archaisms like whiskey (in England whisky), and still use the obsolete gotten instead of got, which is shorter and sounds better, this is our common language. And we should honor and respect it, as all languages.

Often, the change in meaning is faster. For instance, hero (herói), which used to describe "persons who practice brave acts at the risk of their own life" (such as happened with New York City firefighters and others on September 11, 2001) is changing extra fast. Nowadays, any person who gains notoriety, appears a lot on TV for some deed—without any risk of life—may become a hero. For instance, Oprah of TV renown, Tom Cruise of famous Hollywood movies—are heroes. Hero gained an added definition: "famous," "an idol," "an icon," "a leader." There are even books on "how to be a hero."

It happens in Portuguese too, of course. Why are members of the São Paulo City police called grilos (crickets)? Because the first ones, who also directed traffic, were equipped with apitos (whistles), in addition to the once famous cassetetes (truncheons), instead of pistols. Alas, this attempt at having uniformed "civil policemen"—an imitation of the traditional London bobbies (policiais). If I am not mistaken, now they all—English and Brazilian included—carry firearms.

Heleninha B. asks what is the difference between the World Series of Baseball and the World Cup of Football Association. Dear H., the difference is the meaning of the term World (Mundial, do Mundo). When our World Series came into being, only Americans and perhaps some Canadians, played baseball (beisbol). It was a rather limited world, but in their enthusiasm and hubris, the men who created the annual dispute of a trophy (troféu, taça), perhaps hoped that one day teams and/or leagues of other countries—Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Japan—would join. It seems that this never happened, so the Baseball "World" Series is still limited to Americans and Canadians.

The World Cup includes countries of the whole world whose football (soccer) national teams qualify per region. As far as I remember, the first time the U.S. participated was in 1950, in Brazil, with an indifferent performance. American teams have visibly improved since then but not enough to win the Cup. Historically, the nearest the U.S. got to be champion was when it hosted the games of the World Cup. In the 2002, the U.S. soccer team shone but fell before Germany in the World Cup co-hosted by Korea and Japan.

Football was introduced in Brazil by the English at the turn of the century and for a while several Brazilian (mostly São Paulo) clubs sported English names, as the Corinthians Paulista. From its modest beginnings, futebol brasileiro has grown tremendously, becoming like a fever that spread all over the country.

For comments, notes, questions, or corrections, please e-mail vewilson@3oaks.com 

© 2002 Wilson Velloso

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