# estafermo = twerp?



## arbilab

_Estafermo_ no Portugues = _twerp_ in English?

Context:  On a movie discussion board, an English speaker had criticized a native of Portugal for minor grammatical errors writing English.  I pointed out that the native of Portugal wrote English better than the English speaker wrote Portuguese, and that the English speaker was being a _twerp_, which defines in English as a person of inconsequence, of unmoderated childish behavior.

After several exchanges, the Portugal native offered the term _estafermo_.  It wasn't in the lookup.  Is that the word you would use for _twerp_?  It's a mild derogatory, a dismissive.


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## Frajola

I'd say that _'patife'_ is a word people understand in Brazil as meaning 'twerp'.

As for estafermo, I've never come across that word myself.

EDIT: another word for that in Braz Port is _'paspalho'_


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## Desastre

First of all, I must confess I've never seen any of those words (twerp and estafermo). However, I'd say we could use the word _infantil_ (among others) to qualify a person fitting that description. In Brazil, at least.


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## Vanda

Maybe estafermo for Portugal is ok, for us here it is in  desuse (you can see above the boys haven't heard it before).
Aha, I remember it now! People in the interior used it to refer to a person who was "estorvo" (meninos, você procurem a palavra no inglês pro Arbilab, que estou de saída agora). 
And as for translations, as the guys said above you can use:
paspalho, inútil, basbaque, imbecil, estorvo, impedimento

here


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## andre luis

Palhaço,infantil,empecilho.


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## Frajola

As I understand, a _twerp_ is an _*offensive*_ term to refer to someone you can't take seriously, someone who acts silly, someone who doesn't know any better and therefore doesn't deserve any importance.

In my book, that is a _patife_, _paspalho_, _panaca, moleque, sem noção_-- but *not* an _estorvo_ or _empecilho_. Those I think are words to describe annoying people who are always getting in the way.

Oh God, here goes another can of worms...


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## arbilab

Obrigado a todos.  I'll pass it on to my friend from Portugal.

He is also fluent in French, Spanish, and Italian.  So anyone who only speaks one language criticizing his minor English infraction is indeed a twerp.

Indeed, Frajola, it is not complimentary in the least.  But it's dismissive more than what I'd call offensive. In this instance, the English speaker's behavior was _offensive_, but was of so little consequence as to invoke dismissal rather than counter-offense.


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## javargasdom

*Estafermo*  in spanish, and for the word's middle-age origin I suppose also in portuguese, designated the dummy used to train soldiers in combat; it turned around on its vertical shaft when the soldier hit on its shield with a spear while running along, and kind of hit back with the weapons attached to it on the other side -it really hit back if the soldier wasn't fast enough to get out of reach-.

So, it could mean stupid or dummy, but slightly dangerous. Obnoxious twerp, may be?


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## arbilab

Good perspective on derivation, javar.


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## Carfer

Não, estafermo (pessoa feia, sem graça, desmazelada, que não vale nada) é demasiado pejorativo e desajustado à situação em causa. Na verdade, o termo adquiriu até uma intensidade ofensiva bastante superior ao seu significado real, o que agrava ainda mais o desajustamento à situação.
Nunca ouvi twerp, mas pela descrição que faz, eu chamar-lhe-ia, aqui em Portugal, um 'brincalhão'.


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## arbilab

Right, Carfer.  Except brincalhão is not quite dismissive enough.  A brincalhão doesn't set out to offend, just to be silly, and may be annoying in the process.

In this context, the originator DID set out to offend.  But he did it in such a superficial, supercilious manner, as to be altogether dismissable.  Not worthy of counter offense.

Another English term for _twerp_ might be _twit_.


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## Outsider

_Twerp_, tanto quanto sei, tem um sentido algo condescendente, mas nem sempre depreciativo -- ou estarei a confundi-lo com _squirt_? Mas tem uma conotação de pequenez que não encontro em "estafermo". _The little twerp_ em alguns casos pode-se traduzir como "o garoto", "o pequenote" ou "o minorca".

"Estafermo" pode ser uma tradução aceitável, dependendo do contexto, mas à primeira vista parece-me mais negativo. Talvez _bastard_ seja um bom equivalente.


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## arbilab

Ah.  'Estafermo' is an invective, more a counter offense.  Right, I was looking for something less pungent.  Dismissive, but not counter offensive.  Something you might say to your own child if they were being purposefully annoying.  "Don't be a twerp."


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## Archimec

Não estou certo se já foram mencionados, mas 'pateta', 'pateta alegre' e 'palerma' poderiam fazer parte da lista...


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## Carfer

Efectivamente, Archimec.
Voltando ao post de arbilab em que diz que procura algo que se possa dizer a um filho, acho que realmente 'pateta', 'palerma' ou 'tonto' would fill the bill


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## arbilab

Of the words in the lookup, _palerma_ might come closest.  _Tonto_ is not quite dismissive enough to capture the essence of _twerp_ or _twit._


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## Carfer

Ocorreu-me repentinamente 'parvo', palavra de uso tão comum que me admira como ainda não me tinha lembrado dela.


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## Frajola

arbilab said:


> Indeed, Frajola, it is not complimentary in the least. But it's dismissive more than what I'd call offensive. In this instance, the English speaker's behavior was _offensive_, but was of so little consequence as to invoke dismissal rather than counter-offense.


 
I think it's difficult to put your thumb on the temperature of any given word, as far as its level of potential insult. I think it has a lot to do with who delivers it and how they do it, as much as it's about who is on the receiving end. 

But I absolutely see where you are coming from, arbi, so I'd say that _twerp_ (or _twit_ for that matter) is a _potentially offensive_ word.

Another term that occurred to me, in Brazilian Portuguese, is _moleque_. Poke around google and you might find it interesting to see how Brazilians use that word.


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## Vanda

Or you can begin here. But as his aim is Portugal, moleque won't do the trick.


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## Outsider

Fedelho!


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## Frajola

Outsider said:


> Fedelho!


 



Nice one, Out!


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## arbilab

I'll run that one by my friend.  He says his grandmother uses _estafermo_, that's where he got it.

But of course, the scale of invectives from mild to strong, from dismissive to aggressively offensive, varies with the situation and the delivery.  Maybe that is why there are so many of them to choose from.


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