efeito borboleta

Portuguese

Etymology

Compound of efeito (“effect”) +‎ borboleta (“butterfly”). Allusion that if a butterfly flapped its wings somewhere on Earth, this movement could change a system on the other side of the planet; popularly known for the allegory that the flapping of a butterfly's wings in Brazil could cause a tornado in Texas.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /eˈfej.tu boʁ.boˈle.tɐ/ [eˈfeɪ̯.tu boɦ.boˈle.tɐ]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /eˈfej.tu boʁ.boˈle.tɐ/ [eˈfeɪ̯.tu boɦ.boˈle.tɐ]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /eˈfej.tu boɾ.boˈle.tɐ/ [eˈfeɪ̯.tu boɾ.boˈle.tɐ]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /eˈfej.tu boʁ.boˈle.tɐ/ [eˈfeɪ̯.tu boʁ.boˈle.tɐ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /eˈfej.to boɻ.boˈle.ta/ [eˈfeɪ̯.to boɻ.boˈle.ta]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /iˈfɐj.tu buɾ.buˈle.tɐ/ [iˈfɐj.tu βuɾ.βuˈle.tɐ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /iˈfɐj.tu buɾ.buˈle.tɐ/ [iˈfɐj.tu βuɾ.βuˈle.tɐ]
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /iˈfej.tu buɾ.buˈle.tɐ/ [iˈfej.tu βuɾ.βuˈle.tɐ]
  • (Central Portugal) IPA^(key): /iˈfej.tu buɾ.buˈle.tɐ/ [iˈfej.tu βuɾ.βuˈle.tɐ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /iˈfe.tu buɾ.buˈle.tɐ/ [iˈfe.tu βuɾ.βuˈle.tɐ]

Noun

efeito borboleta m (usually uncountable, plural efeitos borboleta)

1. butterfly effect (technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory)