PortugueseEnfiar o pé na jaca
Meaning: To overdo it wildly, especially with food or drink.
Literally: To stick your foot in the jackfruit
Example: “Na festa de formatura, enfiei o pé na jaca e comi quatro sobremesas.” — At the graduation party I went overboard and ate four desserts.
English equivalent: To go overboard
Origin: The usual explanation, given by the Dicio dictionary, is that the original was enfiar o pé no jacá: a jacá is a bamboo or vine basket hung on the back of a pack animal, and muleteers who stopped to drink along the road would put a foot through it trying to climb back on. The basket later gave way to the better-known jaca (jackfruit), a form spread by the Globo telenovela Pé na Jaca (2006–07). The basket story is popular rather than documented.
Equivalents in other languages
Ukrainian: Передати куті меду (Peredaty kuti medu) Literally: To put too much honey in the kutia
English: go overboard
More Portuguese idioms
- Pisar na bola To mess up or let someone down.
- Encher linguiça To pad something out with filler to take up space or time.
- Nem que a vaca tussa No way; under no circumstances.
- Tirar o cavalo da chuva To give up on an expectation.
- Pagar mico To embarrass yourself publicly.
- Procurar pelo em ovo To nitpick over nothing.
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Words that look familiar in another language but mean something else entirely.
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