Gandaiar

I've always envied English for having the word scavenge meaning to look around in the garbage and always thought that we Portuguese speakers didn't have a word for the activity, even though scavengers unfortunately aren't few in Brazil. I've mentioned my fondness for concise words before. Yesterday, while reading an article about the Spanish word gandalla, I found out we do have a verb, gandaiar, which reminds me of my mom and how she often said the noun gandaia to mean partying, a night out.

There's also that famous poem by Manuel Bandeira, o Bicho, which talks about a man scavenging in the trash to the surprise of the narrator, who thought for a long while it was an animal. It's a pity that the poem didn't introduce me to gandaiar.