When someone annoys you, or does something terribly annoying, what do you say?
"Listen, buster!"
"Hey! You think you can get away with that?"
In my crazy Portuguese family, you thump the offender on the arm and say, "Ai, curisco!"
I always grew up with this word. It might be the first Portuguese word I ever heard or learned. And when I say that my family uses this, they are most of the Portuguese people I know. My perception might be skewed. (I've heard it's really bad, but I've only ever heard it playfully)
Literally, it means "lightning". Nothing bad in that, right? Except if you call someone that, "them's fightin' words" (to use the American Western vernacular)
It's not quite bad language, or in the category of a swear word. Used mostly on Sao Miguel, every island (and immigrant) seems to recognize it.
I once had a teacher from Brown University try to explain it when we were all on a class field trip to a Portuguese restaurant. He was dealing with the bill and asked the waitress for $40 in singles.
She turned to him immediately, punched his arm (somewhat playfully) and said "Ai! Curisco!!"
"Listen, buster!"
"Hey! You think you can get away with that?"
In my crazy Portuguese family, you thump the offender on the arm and say, "Ai, curisco!"
I always grew up with this word. It might be the first Portuguese word I ever heard or learned. And when I say that my family uses this, they are most of the Portuguese people I know. My perception might be skewed. (I've heard it's really bad, but I've only ever heard it playfully)
Literally, it means "lightning". Nothing bad in that, right? Except if you call someone that, "them's fightin' words" (to use the American Western vernacular)
It's not quite bad language, or in the category of a swear word. Used mostly on Sao Miguel, every island (and immigrant) seems to recognize it.
I once had a teacher from Brown University try to explain it when we were all on a class field trip to a Portuguese restaurant. He was dealing with the bill and asked the waitress for $40 in singles.
She turned to him immediately, punched his arm (somewhat playfully) and said "Ai! Curisco!!"
No comments:
Post a Comment