EP word of the week (#38): comboio

I have no idea why I ended up not making this word one of my first features: I love trains and train trips: there’s something quite peaceful about the idea of being able to see the vistas without any cares (something you can’t do as a driver of a car, for obvious reasons), and I love the excitement and mystery of train stops: never knowing who might enter or leave at a given point, and where their lives are headed to and from that moment in time…

Well, as I’m sure most of you know, EP and BP have different words for train: [o] comboio in Portugal, [o] trem in Brazil. European Portuguese uses the latter in other ways: for example, a set of kitchen appliances (pots and pans) is called [o] trem de cozinha, especially if bought as a piece; the landing gear of an airplane is called [o] trem de aterragem. As such, [o] trem can sometimes be used for any set of things that go together (the most common term for that is still [o] conjunto, though), just like a train is a group of wagons/compartments/carriages on rails.

Um comboio Alfa Pendular na chegada à Gare do Oriente, perto do Parque das Nações. An Alfa Pendular train on arrival at Gare do Oriente [Orient Station], next to Lisbon’s Parque das Nações

Related words:

• [a] locomotiva: locomotive
• [a] paragem: stop