Energy and raw materials

The thirty-fourth entry is a bomba de calor do ar, and the first word of it does two jobs that English never lets one word do. Uma bomba is the machine that moves a fluid — a bomba de água, a bomba da bicicleta, with the verb bombear beside it — and uma bomba is equally the thing that explodes, so that encontraram uma bomba na obra waits for the rest of the sentence before it means anything at all. English keeps the two apart and never lets them meet. « A pump » is the machine, and every figure of speech built on it runs towards effort or supply: « to pump iron », « to pump money into a project », « to pump somebody for information ». « A bomb » is the weapon, and its figures run the other way, towards failure and speed — in British usage « the play bombed » says that it failed badly. The trap works in both directions, which is worth remembering at the till: a bomba de gasolina is a petrol pump, and a whole petrol station with it.