Trust me, I've spent "many years turning chickens"

Hello everyone!

I bet the title of this post caught your attention. It's a Portuguese idiomatic expression, popular sayings that sound like nonsense when you translate them to English! But fear not, if you're willing to be more at ease with the Portuguese language, or if you want to make Portuguese friends, this is a great way to show off, and in this post I'm going to explain some of them! So... let's start!

Muitos anos a virar frangos ("Many years turning chickens")

I'm starting with the one I used for the title of this post. If you read it out loud, people will think you've been chasing chickens around the farm for your whole life or something! In fact, it's more connected to the barbecue houses (churrasqueiras) that you see all over the country. Barbecue chicken is a staple of the Mozambican cuisine, a former Portuguese colony. Since its independence, many Portuguese came back to mainland Portugal and brought that recipe with them, and several churrasqueiras opened all over the country. If you've tried Nando's, you know what I'm talking about! It's that juicy, spicy grilled chicken served with fries and a nice cold beer! At the shop there will always be someone to receive the orders and talk to customers, while the rest of the staff prepare them. The expression is connected to the man who's at the grill, skewering the chickens, and... turning them around every once in a while to make sure they're nicely grilled - so their task is essential to make sure you get a good grilled chicken!. Because it's the same gesture over and over again, when someone is very good at something and already knows the tricks of the trade, we usually say with pride "Tsk... muitos anos a virar frangos!"

Tira o cavalinho da chuva ("Take the little horse out of the rain")

This is one of the funniest ones! Imagine you have a nosy friend who's always asking you to get them out of trouble, or to do something for them that is annoying (so they're giving it to you instead!)... you answer that they can "take the little horse out of the rain"! This to say that they can forget about it because there is no way that you'll do it!

Estar com os azeites ("To be with olive oil")

Do you lose your train ride constantly because there's a lot of traffic on the road? Waited a long time for a friend at a cafe? Failed to take advantage of a good sale at a shop? Then you have every right to be with the olive oil - it means that you're very angry at the moment!

Armado em carapau de corrida ("To be smug and pretend to be a racing horse mackerel")

If you're familiar with internet expressions, this would probably be close to "smarty pants". The horse mackerel is a very popular species of fish in Portugal that is usually eaten during the summer, grilled and served with boiled potatoes and a sauce made of paprika, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and chopped parsley. It's very nimble so it tries to avoid the fishing net, but somehow still ends up being caught, which means that even the smartest person can be caught!

Estar em águas de bacalhau ("To be in codfish waters")

Just the word "codfish" will tell you right away that this is a portuguese expression, haha. When you buy dried cod it's pretty much impossible to eat it - so you should place it in a container with a lot of water and change it frequently for a few days! Otherwise the water will have... quite an interesting fragrance. So whenever something (a plan, a project, etc) is created but never finished, the portuguese say that it's in "codfish waters".

Sete cães a um osso ("Seven dogs for a single bone")

What happens when you feed a dog? It rushes right away to the bowl to feast on the delicacy you bought it! Now imagine if you had a single portion of dog food but several dogs waiting to eat it... yes it's a pretty sad thought! But the idea here is that when something is in high demand and you have a very slim chance of getting it you express frustration!

Example:

Friend 1: Hey, artist x is coming to Lisbon! Why don't we buy tickets for the show?

Friend 2: Forget it! With how popular artist x is, the tickets will sell out right away! It'll be like sete cães a um osso...

Ter falta de chá ("To be without tea")

Have you ever been to a restaurant and noticed someone eating with very poor manners? Or do you have a friend that at the last minute bailed out of meeting you out for dinner, or is very outspoken and ends up hurting people's feelings? Tea for a very long time was associated with the elite, as it was an expensive, hard to acquire product (by the way, did you know that the portuguese introduced tea in Europe?). This means that stereotypically speaking, the lower class had less education, lower income, and so couldn't acquire tea. This is why that a person without any manners is a person that lacks tea.

Résvés Campo de Ourique ("Close to Campo de Ourique")

In 1755, a huge earthquake destroyed Lisbon - so strong that a tsunami followed it afterwards, and the water almost reached Campo de Ourique, a quarter in the city of Lisbon located at a higher point. So you could say that it was... a close call. This expression is mostly known in Lisbon because of this, but people use it when someone or something barely escapes out of a bad situation - usually something that requires movement.

Olha o passarinho ("Look at the little bird")

Probably one of the cutest expressions! In the old days before any of us were born, pictures usually required a long time to be taken. People had to look at the camera for a long time, so usually there was a bird in a cage next to the photographer so that they could stay focused. This is why the photographer usually asked for people to look at the bird. Nowadays you can take a picture in a second, and this expression is a bit old fashioned, but it kept on being sad for a long time even if the process became much faster. Nowadays people are just asked to smile. In summary, this is the equivalent of "cheese!".

Anda mouro na costa ("There's a moorish person close to the coastline")

This one is also connected to the portuguese history! During the time of the Discoveries, sometimes pirates would attack the vessels coming back from all parts of the whole carrying valuable goods. Most of these pirates were usually from the north african coast, known as moors. This means that when danger was near, there were moors on the coast! With time the expression gained a different meaning, specially when someone's heart is attacked - it means that someone has seen a little bird and is probably in love.

I just shared with you 10 famous portuguese idiomatic expressions, but there are many more! Did you like them? Please share in the comments some of the most famous expressions in your country and what they mean!

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