Art and culture

The fifth entry is o quadro de pintura, and the qualifier at the end of it is the whole lesson: Portuguese has to add de pintura because o quadro on its own has far too many jobs to be left alone on a page about art. Underneath the noun is Latin quadrum, a four-sided thing, and every sense is a square seen in a different room. O quadro on a gallery wall is the framed painting. O quadro in a classroom is the board the teacher writes on. O quadro in a report is the table of figures, so that « see the table below » comes out as ver o quadro abaixo. O quadro elétrico is the fuse box on the landing, o quadro da bicicleta is the frame, and os quadros da empresa are its salaried managers, the people on the establishment. English spends five unrelated words on that list — « painting », « board », « table », « frame », « staff » — and keeps nothing at all of the square that holds them together.