Regional vocabulary in the Central-West

drunk, drunkard

Borrowed from Spanish 'borracho', so it turns up most in border and Centro-Oeste speech; in Portugal the same word informally means 'good-looking', so context matters.

O Charles chegou em casa borracho ontem.Charles came home drunk yesterday.

bland, dull

Used both for food with no taste and for a person, speech or event with no spark. It is standard Portuguese, not restricted to any region, and is mildly critical rather than rude.

Essa sopa tá muito desenxabida.This soup is so bland.

cigarette butt

A familiar cigarette-butt word especially prominent in the Centre-West and Southeast in the ALiB capital survey. It skewed younger and more highly educated in that sample.

Ela apagou a bituca antes de jogá-la no cinzeiro.She put out the cigarette butt before dropping it in the ashtray.

bicycle

Informal word for a bicycle. Both dictionaries tie it to Rio de Janeiro; elsewhere people will just say 'bike' or 'bicicleta'.

Vou pro trabalho de camelo.I'll go to work by bike.

slingshot

A southern and Centre-Western name for a slingshot. Funda has older and broader meanings too, so this entry teaches only the regional forked-slingshot sense.

Ele esticou a borracha da funda, mas desistiu de atirar.He pulled back the slingshot band but decided not to shoot.

cigarette butt

A cigarette-butt word concentrated in the Southeast in the ALiB survey, especially around Rio de Janeiro and Vitória, with a secondary Centre-Western presence.

O garçom recolheu a guimba caída ao lado da mesa.The waiter picked up the cigarette butt beside the table.

kite

A regional variant of pandorga recorded in the Centre-West and southern kite-name area. It names an ordinary paper kite.

A pandoga subiu tão alto que quase sumiu entre as nuvens.The kite climbed so high that it almost disappeared among the clouds.

kite

A shortened regional counterpart of arraia for a paper kite, especially in Goiás and the Centre-West. Raia has other standard meanings, including “ray”.

A raia colorida caiu no telhado do vizinho.The colorful kite landed on the neighbor's roof.

to sunbathe lazily

To bask lazily in the sun the way a lizard does — a relaxed, slightly humorous verb for lounging on a porch or a beach. Both dictionaries record it without any regional restriction, and Priberam's example is European Portuguese.

Passou a tarde toda lagarteando na varanda.He spent the whole afternoon sunbathing on the porch.

to trip, to stumble

A rural-flavoured variant of 'tropeçar': to trip on something, whether or not you actually go down. Marked as caipira/goiano speech rather than neutral Portuguese.

Trupiquei na pedra e quase caí.I tripped on the rock and almost fell.

roundabout

The official and safest nationwide name for a roundabout. In the ALiB inland survey it was strongest through central Brazil and also common in inland São Paulo and northern Paraná.

A rotatória ficou travada no horário de pico.The roundabout was jammed during rush hour.

dragonfly

A vivid informal dragonfly name recorded across the Centre-West, Southeast and South. Literally it resembles “bottom-washer”; use it as a regional animal name, not in formal writing.

Um lava-bunda pousou no varal logo depois da chuva.A dragonfly landed on the clothesline just after the rain.

thing, stuff, item

The all-purpose mineiro noun: any object, situation or thing whose name you cannot be bothered with — 'passa esse trem aqui'. Completely everyday in Minas; elsewhere it reads as a deliberate mineiro marker.

Passa esse trem aqui.Pass that thing here.