15 Names of things that have different meanings in our Brazil

Our Brazil, of so many cultures and peoples, is abundant in all aspects. One of them is our mother tongue, so versatile that it can end up causing some confusion for the most unsuspecting travellers.

Things that here mean one thing, there mean quite another. It’s funny enough to see the confusion on the person’s face as they try to understand the meaning of a sentence that doesn’t make any sense to them.

O awesome.club decided to list some of these words for you. Just take a look.

When someone says that word, the vast majority of people think you are talking about a person of short stature who is from Rio de Janeiro or maybe even that variety of beans. There in Ceará you will hear people asking for “carioquinhas” in bakeries, as it is the word by which they call what is also known as salt bread, French bread or baguette.

This everyone knows. It’s that toy that consists of a weight and a bunch of feathers that we slap back and forth trying not to drop it on the floor, isn’t it? Well, it is. But in Maranhão the word is also synonymous with the well-known marbles.

This is easy. Almost every electronic device these days has a screen. And there in Piauí people have it too. There, the word is used to refer to the face, as in the expression “Oh, this tired canvas of yours, see mermão?”

Sometimes you are feeling lonely and decide to “chat-chat” around. Well, the tip is that you don’t try this in the northeast of the country. In some places in the region this is synonymous with provoking someone with verbal aggression.

The mechanical pencil has a lot of names in Brazil, such as lead holders, graphite pencils or polis. But in some regions of northeastern Brazil, if you ask for a mechanical pencil at a stationery store, you may not receive the product you expected. There this word refers to the object we use to sharpen pencils, the also called sharpener.

When you speak of pasta, it is assumed that you are referring to some delicious dish. But in many Brazilian regions the word is also used by young people as a slang term, being an adjective for something good, such as: “This pasta is pasta.”

As already mentioned in item 1, this type of bread is named in the south of the country. But be careful with that word, because in other regions of Brazil, such as Rio de Janeiro, “cacete” is synonymous with a blow and you can be in a bakery asking, without meaning to, to be beaten.

This word suffers like the previous one. In São Paulo it is used to refer to cookies, but in Rio de Janeiro it is synonymous with tapa. Be careful when asking your friends for one.

All over Brazil (and also in the rest of the world) they will assume that you are talking about religion. But there, in Maranhão, it may be that someone is just asking for guarana from a specific brand.

You may be talking about a small person who works in a mine, or even referring to a resident of Minas Gerais, but in Rio de Janeiro the vast majority will think that you want the famous and delicious soft drink with guarana extract and a hat. -leather.

Maybe you’re playing a game of cards and you’ve got a royal card. But in Bahia it might just be someone addressing any man nearby.

If you read that word and thought of dogs, then you are not a resident of Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Pernambuco or Bahia. In these places the word refers to table football, or foosball.

He is clearly a native of Italy. Except in Rio de Janeiro, where they are more likely to be talking about a delicious salty pasta stuffed with cheese and ham.

It’s a pretty obvious word. If someone is angry, he is angry. Except in Rio De Janeiro, where something to be angry means that something is cool.

Sometimes we just want to get out of the house and go for a walk, don’t we? Well, if you are in Bahia and decide to go for a walk, that is the way you should go. There the sidewalk is called that way.

Do you know any more words to add to our list? Don’t forget to let us know in the comments section.