Abstract

Brazilians have a habit of tacking ão onto a word to signify its enormous size or importance. Gordo, or fat, becomes gordão, a really big fat person, or the 2005 corruption scheme of monthly payments to congressmen became dubbed the mensalão. Brazil itself might be nicknamed Brazilão – a really big complicated country that is difficult to categorize and understand: in the famous words of Tom Jobim, Brazil is not for beginners.