meter os pés pelas mãos

Literally: To put the feet through the hands

Example: “Nervoso na entrevista, meteu os pés pelas mãos e chamou a diretora pelo nome errado.” — Nervous in the interview, he put his foot in it and called the director by the wrong name.

English equivalent: To put one's foot in it

Origin: "Pés," feet, traces to Latin pes, pedis, but the specific expression's own history isn't clearly documented — Portuguese-language etymological references themselves note that its exact origin remains unsettled. The image itself is a small, absurd swap: putting your feet where your hands should go, doing with the wrong limb what should obviously be done with the right one, a vivid picture of someone whose actions have simply come uncoordinated. Two speculative explanations are sometimes offered rather than firmly documented: one traces it to exhausted laborers in heavy agricultural or forced work, whose extreme fatigue caused a genuine breakdown in fine physical coordination; another points to overworked pack animals, driven past a safe pace until their legs became tangled and they stumbled. Neither theory is confirmed, but both share the same underlying picture of competence collapsing under too much strain, nervousness, or exhaustion.