Language Going Nowhere

The Brazilians have a lot to answer for in the corruption of the Portuguese language but, to their credit, the Portuguese generally do their best to resist.

The latest mess I have come across in this area appeared in a proposal from a marketing agency to apply their talent to redesigning our company stationery. Nothing unusual there, except that the word they use for stationery is estacionário. They have got to be kidding!

Admittedly, there is no single word in Portuguese to describe all the headed paper, envelopes, visiting cards and so on that fall under the title "stationery" in English. So some idiot went to an English-Portuguese dictionary, looked up "stationary" and found "estacionário". Brilliant!

Of course, the idiot didn't know (or didn't care) that "stationary" means stopped, while "stationery" refers to those products sold by a stationer. So let's just use the wrong word, and get on with it. It's easier, and etymology is a bore, anyway...