What does the word "fleio" mean in Portuguese?
I see the word used from time to time on twitter for instance: http://twitter.com/rmedeirosx/status/648601169355505664
But I wasn't able to find the meaning anywhere.
What does the word "fleio" mean in Portuguese?
I see the word used from time to time on twitter for instance: http://twitter.com/rmedeirosx/status/648601169355505664
But I wasn't able to find the meaning anywhere.
The specific word fleio is derived from either freio or, more rarely and somewhat strangely, feio, and there are basically two general reasons a Brazilian might intentionally shift a R by a L.
The first one involves the famous Turma da Mônica character Cebolinha, a young boy who shifts R by L every time he speaks, due to his dyslalia. Recently, the meme CHOLA MAIS has given a boost on jokes and some NSFW Twitter pages involving him. As a matter of fact, Cebolinha speaks feio normally, so people trying to impersonate him by feio -> fleio are actually doing it wrong.
Secondly, the person might be imitating a baby (for example, a couple doing baby talk) or, more rarely, someone with dyslalia.
The original tweet you posted is somewhat curious in that it is derived from feio, but it is not explicit on if this is a inside joke or a baby-like talking. Other tweets with fleio fall on either preceeding cases as far as I can tell, so it would be better if you added a couple more examples you have in mind.
There is actually another very common reason. There are "jokes" about Asian, especially Chinese people, not being able to pronounce the R sound. Most often, these use the expression pastel de flango.
That's a typo. The word is "feio" that means "ugly". Well, unless it's a new twitter slang that these young people use nowadays. But that's definitely not a Portuguese word.