Brazilian Conhos

[David Jordan]

On Mon, 1 Jul 1996 LBernier at tribune.com wrote:

>      Out of boredom, I did a web search on the word "conho" and came up 
>      with nine hits against some list archive in Venezuela, all of which is 
>      in Spanish, and none of which I can read.
>      
>      As seen in this excerpt -
>      
>           "Conho, me pegaron ganas de comer cachitos de jamon con malta 
>           ahora.  Alguien sabe donde conseguir estos en Connecticut? Creen 
>           que el Portu americano me los va a fiar?:-)"
>      
>      conho seems to be some sort of slang address.  Can anyone translate 
>      this? 
>      
>      Jean.
> 

I would take a *loose*, free translation of the above, rendered 
idiomatically, to be *something* like:

	"Damn, all of a sudden I really want to eat some 'ham 
	horns with malt.'  Does anyone know where to get some in 
	Connecticut?  Would a Portuguese-American vouch for their
	quality?" 


Yes, I said this is a *loose* translation.

Please bear in mind that "cono" (with a tilde), the French cognate "con," 
and, I presume, the Portuguese "conho" are generally, in my understanding,
expressions of impatience, annoyance, or generalized anger, not an
expression of anger directed at a specific woman, as the English
equivalent usually is, nor an allegation of weakness, as the English "p
word" is, if directed at an individual male.  And, apparently not a form
of address, like a crude way to say "pal" or "buddy."  At least, the above
has been my experience. 

"Ham horns with malt"?  Apparently the common expression for a ham
comestible of Portugal or Brazil.  Something like a "ham hock", maybe? 
With malt?  Well, to each culture it's own, I suppose.  Maybe they even
taste real good, or positively grow on you if you give them a chance.  
Let's be fair; after all, some of the things we Americans eat ...

The third sentence appears to ask if any local Portuguese-American would 
declare the local "ham horns" to be worth eating.

Damn, but that was fun, a nice mental diversion!  Possibly even it 
hadn't been a rough day.  Consider sending some more "conho" quotes along.

David Jordan
littlcat at netcom.com