Our list of words for stingy people just grew longer, thanks to a contribution from Rick in San Antonio, Texas: When he lived in Brazil, he learned the expression mão-de-vaca, literally “hand of a cow” and pão-duro, literally “hard bread.” The former reflects the idea that someone who has a cow’s hand is literally “tight-fisted,” and the latter may suggest someone so miserly they hoard their bread, taking tiny nibbles at it for so long that it gets rock-hard. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Brazilian Words for Misers”
We continue to gather more terms from around the world to denote somebody who’s stingy.
The person who never picks up the check in the restaurant, and Rick from San Antonio sent us two expressions that he learned in Brazil. One is maljivaca, and the other is pau-duru.
And maljivaka literally means the hand of the cow. So if you have a cow’s hand, you are literally tight-fisted. You have no fingers to pick things up. Definitely no opposable thumb.
And then palduru is hard bread. And that’s somebody who is so miserly that they hoard their bread, nibbling at it for so long that it just gets rock hard.
So hand of the cow and hard bread. Lovely. 877-929-9673.
