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Portuguese to English translations [PRO]
Slang / português de Portugal (Açores) | | Portuguese term or phrase: tau tau tau | We're almost at the end of my questions about colloquial or street Portuguese.
Here we have a battered woman complaining about the slowness of the justice system in Portugal:
"Aqui é assim, primeiro você faz o crime, fica zanzando aí fora, **tau tau tau**, pra depois o tribunal vai resolver se vai prender."
I think I've actually heard this said and I thought at the time it was fairly meaningless. Can anybody complete my education? |
|  lexicalKudoZ activityQuestions: 210 (none open) ( 29 closed without grading) Answers: 303
Spain
| Local time: 02:50
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| | naughty, naughty | Explanation:
This is how I have understood it, Tau meaning something like "smack" |
| Selected response from:
Douglas Bissell
Portugal
Local time: 01:50
| Grading comment Thanks, Douglas. Talking to the editor of this work, the consensus is that the woman means "he keeps on smacking his wife".
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer |
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| Summary of reference entries provided | | tau | |
| Discussion entries: 0 |
|---|
Automatic update in 00:
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1 hr confidence:  
| Reference: tau
Reference information:
Dicionario Aurelio da Lingua Portuguesa
tau (2)
Interjeição.
1. Voz imitativa de tiro ou pancada.
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Note added at 1 day39 mins (2010-11-20 14:50:58 GMT)
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e.g.
" Pegaram nos paus afiados e, aproximando-se, pregaram-lhos na cabeça: tau! tau! tau!... A onça, gemendo, exclama: — Ai! Ai! Parai lá... Eles, porém, continuam: tau! tau! tau! e ... "
http://books.google.com/books?id=1poRAAAAIAAJ&q="Pegaram nos...
| T o b i a s
Does not meet criteria
Native speaker of:  English
PRO pts in category: 4
|
| Note to reference poster
Asker: That seems pretty uncontrovertible, Tobias, although I wasn't able to follow up your URL reference for some reason.. As I suspected, it's onomatopoeic, and I now remember the context in which I've met this before - the sound of gunfire (cf. bang, bang) and, I now, discover, the sound of roasting chestnuts popping. In the context of my question, Douglas may not be far off the mark, methinks, or do you want to post an answer?
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The translation workplace 
