Surveying

The fourteenth entry is o ponto de controlo no terreno, and it ends on a word an English reader translates too quickly. « Terrain » is the obvious match, and it is the narrowest job o terreno does. The first thing the word names in Portuguese is a piece of land with an owner and a price: vende-se terreno on a board by the road, comprámos um terreno em Sintra, o terreno tem quatrocentos metros quadrados. That is « a plot » or « a building plot », and « terrain » would be wrong in every one of them, because « terrain » in English describes the shape of ground — rough terrain, mountainous terrain — never a parcel that somebody sold. Then the word widens again. No terreno is the work done away from the office, which English calls « in the field »; o terreno é mau can be the ground underfoot or the soil; and ganhar terreno is to gain ground. So one Portuguese noun answers to « plot », « ground », « field », « soil » and « terrain », and only the last of the five looks like it.