Corrosion and material damage in Portuguese

The last entry is a pintura de proteção, and the English word that renders it has a second life the Portuguese one has never had. On a bridge, « paint » is simply the material and the job: the protective paint is renewed every ten years, and there is nothing odd about the sentence. Away from the bridge, « paint » has become one of the most productive images in the language. Somebody who has left himself no way out has « painted himself into a corner », and the picture is a floor painted from the door inwards. Something unbearably slow is « like watching paint dry ». A report that describes a grim situation « paints a bleak picture », and a night out that got out of hand is « painting the town red ». None of this travels. Pintar in Portuguese stays with the brush, the wall and the canvas, so every one of those phrases has to be rebuilt out of other materials — ficar sem saída, de uma lentidão desesperante, traçar um quadro sombrio. The specialist word is the half that gives no trouble; the everyday one is where the work is.