Environment and climate

The nineteenth entry is o fogo florestal, and the two languages name the same disaster from opposite sides. Portuguese says where it is burning: a floresta, with the adjective florestal hanging off it. English has that option too and uses it — « a forest fire » is perfectly ordinary — but the word that has taken over the news is « wildfire », which says how the fire behaves rather than where it stands. That difference is why only one of the two ever travelled. « Forest fire » stayed a fire in a forest. « Wildfire » became a measure of speed, and the phrase to carry away is « to spread like wildfire », used almost entirely of things that are not fires at all: a rumour, a joke, a panic, a fashion, a piece of news. « The story spread like wildfire » is idiomatic; « the story spread like a forest fire » is not, and reads as a translation. Two notes for writing it. « Wildfire » is one word, with no hyphen. And inside the idiom it takes no article at all: never « like a wildfire ».