Vocabulário De Inglês - Dia Dos Namorados

2014 BRAZILIAN VALENTINE'S DAY

Esta edição é para comemorar o Dia dos Namorados no Brasil, dia 12 de junho. Ou será no dia 11 este ano para que a data não seja ofuscada pela estreia do Brasil na Copa do Mundo? Seja lá quando for, reuni alguns termos que tem a cara do Dia dos Namorados:

• Adonis is a very handsome young man, um "gato". Why Adonis? In Greek mythology, the beautiful young Adonis was beloved by both Persephone and Aphrodite, so Zeus decreed the young man should divide his time and attention between the two goddesses (= deusas). He was later killed by a wild boar – an attack that may have been arranged to avenge another of Adonis' romantic intrigues. To avenge means to harm or punish someone who has harmed you or someone or something that you care about.

• Amour (amor em francês) is a usually illicit love affair. In 2010, a poll of linguists rated amour – the French word for "love," simple and sweet – the most romantic word in the world. In English, the word gains drama and loses innocence. An affair (= caso extra-conjugal) is an example of amour.

• Aphrodisiac is something that excites; an agent that arouses or is held to arouse sexual desire. Example: To me, one of the most successful attributes of an aphrodisiac meal are colors, aromas, tastes and textures that wake up the palate and challenge the mind. Origin: Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love (who was infatuated with Adonis) gave the Greeks the words 'aphrodisia' (heterosexual pleasure) and 'aphrodisiakos' (a gem with aphrodisiac powers).

• Casanova means lover, especially a man who is a promiscuous and unscrupulous lover, ou seja mulherengo ("galinha"), tipo "Don Juan". Example: An example of casanova is the story of Don Juan. Origin: In the 1700s, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was a spy (= espião), a gambler (= jogador), and apparently a man of charm. He was also a writer. His autobiographical musings about his more than 100 lovers made his name a byword (= sinônimo) for a man who loves too much.

• Infatuation is a foolish or extravagant love or admiration: desejo, capricho ou paixão. An infatuation, by definition, is an emotion that shouldn't be taken too seriously. The word's etymology makes the same point. It traces back to the Latin for "foolish" or "silly," as does another insulting term: fatuous.

• Romantic means marked by expressions of love or affection; conducive to or suitable for lovemaking; a person of romantic temperament or disposition. We associate this word with sweetness and love, but it emerged from the conquering powers of the Roman Empire. The expansion of ancient Rome created various dialects of Latin called "romans." (These evolved into Italian, French, Spanish, and others – the Romance languages.). "Romans" were used to write popular stories involving chivalric or courtly love, and such tales became known as romances.

• Saccharine means overly sentimental; mawkish; unpleasantly sweet, ou seja, "meloso/a". Example: The movie was funny, but it had a saccharine ending in which everyone lives happily ever after. O filme foi engraçado, mas teve um final meloso onde todos vivem felizes para sempre. Where did the term come from? Boxes of candy covered with cupids and hearts might, for some people, have a saccharine quality – both in sentiment and taste. For others, romantic and sugary excess is essential to Valentine's Day. Either way, saccharine comes from saccharum, Latin for "sugar." The word dates back to the 1600s. The calorie-free sweetener saccharin (without an e) arrived a couple hundred years later.

• Sweetheart means darling; one who is loved (namorado/a, amado/a, etc). Usually used to address someone you love. Example: He would soon propose to his high school sweetheart and best friend, Kelcie Yeoman, during a family trip to Disneyland. To propose to someone é pedir alguém em namoro. Why the heart? The reason is that Greeks and Egyptians believed the heart was the center of the emotions. English speakers borrowed the idea, and sweet + heart has been a term of endearment – particularly for romantic love – since the Middle Ages.

• Unrequited means not reciprocated or returned in kind, ou seja, não correspondido. Example: Moreover, a good solution for unrequited love is, of course, new love. About the word: Where there's unrequited, there's requited. So what does requite mean? To requite (a somewhat quaint term) is to give or do something in return for something that another person has given or done. So 'unrequited love' suggests an imbalance: too much love paid out and too little paid back.

 

• Valentine is a sweetheart chosen or complimented on Valentine's Day; a gift or greeting sent on this day. Christianity has more than one martyr named Valentine, and the one, true Valentine is uncertain. Romantics favor the tale of the third-century Roman physician and priest Valentine. Supposedly, Valentine had fallen in love with his jailer's daughter (a filha do carcereiro), and shortly before his death sent a letter to her "from your Valentine." Vem daí o nome do Dia dos Namorados em inglês: Valentines' Day.

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