At the doctor and at the chemist

The tenth entry is o inchaço, and behind it stands a verb an English reader already owns without recognising it. Inchar comes from the Latin inflare, to blow into, and « to inflate » is that same verb, borrowed much later and straight out of the books, which is why it still looks Latin while inchar does not. What happened in between is a sound change that runs through a whole layer of Portuguese. The Latin cluster fl became the sound written ch: flamma gave chama, and afflare, to breathe upon, gave achar, the everyday verb for finding something. The neighbouring clusters went the same way — plenus gave cheio, pluvia gave chuva, clavis gave chave. So a Portuguese word beginning with ch is very often an inherited one whose Latin twin reached English by the learned route instead: chama beside « flame », chave beside « clavicle », chuva beside « pluvial ». The swelling in the ankle, on that reading, is air blown in.