my portuguese word of the week
reading vitriolica webb’s ite i have discovered a new portuguese word:
Desenrascanço (loosely translated as “disentanglement”; is used to express an ability to solve a problem without the adequate tools or proper technique to do so, and by use of sometimes imaginative resourcefulness when facing new situations. Achieved when resulting in a hypothetical good-enough solution. When that good solution escapes us we get a failure (enrascanço — entanglement). Most Portuguese people strongly believe it to be one of their most valued virtues and a living part of their culture. Obviously, they are aware that this subjective feature is not an exclusive of theirs.
i’ve printed this out and stuck it on my pinboard in an effort to learn and remember it, i’m sure it’s going to come in very handy and impress any portuguese person when i manage to incorporate it into the conversation, that is if i actually knew how to incorporate it into the conversation, i’m not very good when it comes to portuguese grammar. seems to me that desenrascanço describes very well what we do on our quinta - and describes all those brick-and-corrugated-sheet improvised buildings perfectly…
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