Word of the Day

Friday, January 9, 2009

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.

1 comment:

Psi-Lord said...

Apesar de gandaia e gandaiar serem parte do meu vocabulário ativo, só as conhecia mesmo no sentido de farra e farrear — nunca imaginei que tivessem um outro sentido original! É cada surpresa…