Brazilian Portuguese Vocabulary: Small Health Problems

We’re all familiar with what a “dor de cabeça” (headache) is, both the phrase and the way it feels to have one, but other unwanted things sometimes occur to us or to people we come across in our day-to-day lives and it’s important to know how to talk about them in Portuguese, too. That being said, no one likes to think about these small “health problems”, so the vocab. lesson will be quite short. ; )

Chulé – smelly feet
Coceira – itch

Curiosity: Coçar = to scratch and to itch. For example:

• Minha mão está coçando. = My hand is itchy.
• Eu estou coçando minha mão. = I am scratching my hand.

Cãimbra – cramp, knot (the kind you tie is called nó).
Cheiro de corpo (aka “C.C.”) – body odor (“B.O.”)
Cera (de ouvido) – ear wax (all other kinds of wax carry the same spelling)
Espirro – sneeze;
Espirrar = to sneeze
Mau hálito, bafo (de onça) – bad breath
Soluço – hiccups
Tontura – dizziness (zonzo can be used to say “dizzy”)

It’s not really health problems, but…

Cócegas – tickle (it’s plural in Portuguese);
Fazer cócegas = to tickle
Arroto – burp
Arrotar = to burp

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