Outono em Portugal: Tradições e Clima

What does “castanho” mean in Portuguese?

In Portugal the everyday word for brown is castanho. It comes from castanha, a chestnut, so brown is literally “chestnut colour.” That’s fitting in autumn, when roasted chestnuts are sold on the street. In Brazil people mostly say marrom for brown things and keep castanho for hair and eyes (cabelo castanho, “brown hair”).

Chestnuts are a big part of autumn in Portugal. On Dia de São Martinho (11 November), toda a gente em Portugal come castanhas assadas, as the speaker puts it: everyone eats roasted chestnuts. Then she says she’s wearing uma camisola castanha, a brown jumper, porque castanho é a cor do outono. Watch out for camisola: in Portugal it’s a sweater, in Brazil a nightgown.