Patisserie

The seventh entry is coalhar, and the English verb that answers it has a second life the Portuguese one has never had. In the kitchen the two match exactly: o creme coalha is the cream curdles, and a single drop of water in warm custard will do it. Away from the stove, « to curdle » has been carried into the language of fright, and it has taken the blood with it. The adjective is « blood-curdling », and it is not a rare word: « a blood-curdling scream », « a blood-curdling account of the night ». The verb does the same work unaided, as in « the sound made my blood curdle ». The picture underneath is the dairy one, milk turning in the pan, laid over a body that has had a shock. Portuguese reaches for the opposite element and freezes where we curdle: de gelar o sangue, o sangue gelou-me nas veias. So the two verbs part company at the kitchen door, and a translator who follows coalhar out of it will write something nobody says.