Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Amid

So, one of the complaints about the 2010 World Cup "star", the controversial vuvuzela, is that players cannot concentrate or communicate amid the incessant buzzing noise.

The word amid indicates that something that is happening is accompanied or surrounded by noisy, busy or confused events.

It is more commonly used in writing and news reports – but not only. Here are some more examples and their translation in Portuguese:

> The dollar has fallen in value amid rumors of weakness in the US economy.
O dólar diminuiu de valor em meio aos rumores de enfraquecimento da economia americana.

> As Corinthians scored a beauty, I sat there crying tears of joy, amid the roar from the black&white crowd.
O Poderoso Timão fez um golaço, e eu fiquei ali sentando chorando lágrimas de alegria, em meio ao berreiro da torcida alvinegra.

Sorry about the last example, I just couldn’t resist.

One last thing about the word amid maybe is that it has a secondary sense of “in the middle of things that are not necessarily busy or noisy". It is more of a literary meaning, as illustrated below:

> He sat amid the trees.
Ele se sentou entre as árvores.

Well, as someone said once, “As árvores somos nozes!”

Keep smiling, kids!

4 comments:

Lina Noronha said...

meu, esse exemplo do curintia estragou tudo!

Eduardo de Araújo said...

I know, I know... As I said, I just couldn't help it...

Unknown said...

A frase "As árvores somos nozes" veio mesmo a calhar no exemplo....

Não pude deixar de rir...

Eduardo de Araújo said...

isn't that a great silly line?