How did my grandmother *actually* like her eggs?

April 13, 2022 11:34 AM

My grandmother spoke Portuguese as a child (her parents immigrated to the US from Madeira in the early 1900s), but lost most of the language as an adult and didn't teach any to her daughters. However, throughout her life she still used a few words that are probably Portuguese or corrupted half-remembered Portuguese. My mom has always wanted to know what they actually meant - unfortunately, my grandmother and most of the other family members who might have known are now gone. Maybe you can help?

The word my mom is most curious about is a word Granny used to describe cooked eggs - she would describe the yoke of a runny fried or soft boiled egg as being "məling" (I don't know how she would have spelled i.) Looking for translations of "wet", "runny", or "saucy" hasn't turned up much. Do you know what this word might actually be?

posted by darchildre to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

Possibly "molhinho" (diminutive of "molho" = "sauce", "gravy")? It seems to be in use.
posted by pmdboi at 11:42 AM on April 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I think it must be "molinho" which is actually just "soft," and it's commonly used to describe sunny-side-up eggs. ("Molhinho" is not a way that someone would describe eggs -- it's a noun, not an adjective, and it would mean "little sauce eggs".)
posted by plant or animal at 11:59 AM on April 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Dropping the final syllable is really common in the Acores, so the above explanations align with my familiarity of Acorean Portuguese. For instance my friend’s uncle is named Faustino and he’s called o Faustin (rhyming with molhin, I think)
posted by nouvelle-personne at 12:03 PM on April 13, 2022

Best answer: Plant or animal and nouvelle-personne have it. "Molim" (with the final m pronounced as an 'ng' sound) as a shortening of molinho.
posted by umbú at 12:08 PM on April 13, 2022 [1 favorite]