Measures, amounts, change in Portuguese

The thirty-eighth entry is o ângulo, and its English translation is a spelling that holds two separate words. The one meant here is the corner. It reached English through French from the Latin angulus, and it gives « a right angle », « at an angle », « the angle of the shelf », and the figurative « to look at it from every angle », which is where a reporter’s « angle » on a story comes from. The other « angle » never went near a Latin classroom. It is the Old English angul, a fish-hook, and it survives as a verb: « to angle » is to fish with rod and line, the person doing it is « an angler », the sport is « angling », and the fish that dangles a lure in front of its own mouth is « an anglerfish ». That verb carries an idiom worth having: « to angle for » is to fish for something without asking outright, as in « he was angling for an invitation ». So « an angling club » has no geometry in it at all, and o ângulo has no hook.