Portuguese to English baforada

[Alan Evangelista]

The example "Winston's puffs on his cigar were deep and slow" is incorrectly translated to "As baforadas de Winston em seu charuto eram profundas e devagares". "Baforada" in Portuguese means "smoke expelled by the mouth", not "smoke which enters the mouth" (ref: Baforada ). "Tragada" (= drag) could be used instead if the sentence was about a cigarette, but it implies inhaling the smoking through the mouth and, as you usually do not inhale cigar's smoke, it is not adequate here. Maybe "puxada" ?

 

[casaleiro]

As far as I can see, baforada has a broader range of meanings than just exhaled smoke, right? One of the senses given by Houaiss (1964) is 'exhalation', which is thoroughly general. His entire entry is as follows: "puff, whiff (of cigarette smoke); bad breath; breathing out, breath, exhalation; (fig.) bravado, boasting".

Would you agree that any exhalation is potentially a baforada? Or is there necessarily a suggestion of something unpleasant: a blast of bad breath, a cloud of smoke? Can a baforada be perfumed and delightful?

 

[casaleiro]

Concerning 'puffs' on a cigar, it's worth noting that this English word lends itself to both the drawing-in and the exhalation of cigar smoke. It's not one-directional like baforada. So to puff on a cigar entails the release of vast puffs of smoke from the mouth.
How do you feel about sôpro?

 

[Alan Evangelista]

Would you agree that any exhalation is potentially a baforada? Or is there necessarily a suggestion of something unpleasant: a blast of bad breath, a cloud of smoke? Can a baforada be perfumed and delightful?

Nowadays, "baforada" usually refers to "a puff of smoke exhaled by the mouth", at least in Brazil. As "bafo" means "bad breath", it makes sense that "baforada" could mean a puff of bad breath. I have never heard that word used to express a general exhalation or some delightful and perfumed puff of exhaled air.

So to puff on a cigar entails the release of vast puffs of smoke from the mouth.

I agree that any inhalation entails an exhalation, but it seems to me that a "puff on a cigar/cigarette" refers specifically to pulling air and smoke into your body, not the other way around (in the case of the cigarette, you inhale it to your lungs too). Isn't that right?

How do you feel about sôpro?

I guess you mean "sopro" (at least in Brazilian Portuguese there is no accent). That means a blow of air and that doesn't make sense in this context, at least in Portuguese, because you are *pulling* air and smoke inside your body, not the other way around.

 

[Alan Evangelista]

FYI I have opened a thread about this in the Portuguese forum and other native speakers have suggested "pitada" and "fumada" instead of "baforada" in this context.

 

[casaleiro]

This is all very interesting and educational. I saw your thread. Carfer tentatively suggests fumaça, and the corresponding expression dar uma fumaça, which seem to work. What do you think?
There's also a great thread from some years ago which touches upon the same lexical issues in much greater detail, though not specifically about cigars. It is confirmed that "'Dar uma passa' implica inalar o fumo, 'dar uma baforada' expeli-lo."
Of course, this is really a question for the Eng > Port editor.

 

[casaleiro]

Once again, concerning Eng. puff.
We can say that old Puffhorse the locomotive was seen puffing across the desert, while the Navajo smoke signals rose in great white puffs.
We can say that Winston Churchill could be seen puffing meditatively on his cigar at a distance.
In all these cases I see the smoke that has been emitted. So I reiterate that 'to puff (smoke)' in English does not necessarily mean to draw it in, in fact it is more likely to entail exhalations. However, we can also say that Winston took deep puffs on his cigar, where the implication is that the smoke is drawn in.
Finally, we have the phrasal verb 'to puff out' but 'to puff in' would be odd.
All in all, the full semantic range of puff, both verb and noun, does not seem to correspond exactly with any of the suggested terms in Portuguese.

 

[Alan Evangelista]

This is all very interesting and educational. I saw your thread. Carfer tentatively suggests fumaça, and the corresponding expression dar uma fumaça, which seem to work. What do you think?
There's also a great thread from some years ago which touches upon the same lexical issues in much greater detail, though not specifically about cigars. It is confirmed that "'Dar uma passa' implica inalar o fumo, 'dar uma baforada' expeli-lo."
Of course, this is really a question for the Eng > Port editor.

I have never heard "dar uma fumaça" in the southeast of Brazil, but it makes sense and maybe it is a slang expression in some parts of the country. I have already heard "puxar uma fumaça", which is a more usual slang expression in Brazil nowadays.

Regarding "dar uma passa", I would not even understand what it means if there was no context, I think it is only used in Portugal.

I'd use "dar uma fumada" with anything smokeable. I'd also use "dar uma tragada" with a cigarette and "dar uma puxada" with a marijuana joint.

So I reiterate that 'to puff (smoke)' in English does not necessarily mean to draw it in, in fact it is more likely to entail exhalations. (...) All in all, the full semantic range of puff, both verb and noun, does not seem to correspond exactly with any of the suggested terms in Portuguese.

I agree. The "puff" entry must contain different definitions/translations to Portuguese, as commonly done in Word Reference dictionaries.