povo

English

Alternative forms

povvo

Etymology

Probably a blend of poverty +‎ -o (diminutive suffix), owing to the term's Australian origins. Alternatively, borrowed from Portuguese povo (“common people; the working class”).

Pronunciation

Audio (General Australian): (file)

Adjective

povo (comparative more povo, superlative most povo)

(Australia, British, slang, derogatory) Poor, penniless.
She went to some povo school down the street.
- 2003 October 8, Carol Midgley, “It’s Grim Up North”, in The Times, number 67888, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4:
  This is where, 30 years ago, the docking industry was destroyed, leading to one of the lengthiest industrial disputes in British history, causing a 20 per cent unemployment rate and casting Liverpool as a "povo city" (the jobless rate now stands at a respectable 4 per cent.)
- 2013, Chris Lilley, Ja'mie: Private School Girl, season 1, episode 3, spoken by Ja'mie King, HBO:
  And he's really adorbs. I've been spending time with him and his community in this really povo area in the Western suburbs [sc. of Sydney]. I've been like reading to him and just chilling and stuff. It's legit a seriously tragic environment.
- 2017 June 17, Tara Kenny, “I was a poor kid at a wealthy private school. It gave me social mobility, but also a sense of shame”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:
  The school wasn’t exclusively populated by the children of haughty elitists who wanted their baby geniuses shielded from povo “flat rats” either, (although I suspect there was a bit of that). Many wonderful, open minded people sent their children there, including middle class families who struggled financially to secure that promised leg up in life.
- 2024 April 7, Eleanor Morgan, “Are you rich and ridiculous? TikTok comedian Shabaz Ali has you in his sights”, in The Observer‎^[2], →ISSN:
  It feels “weirdly liberating” for him to now have thousands of people commenting under his videos about how they’re proud to be povvo.

Noun

povo (plural povos)

(Australia, British, slang, derogatory) One who is poor, a pauper.
This area is full of povos.

Synonyms

pov

Esperanto

Etymology

From povi +‎ -o.

Pronunciation

Audio: (file)

IPA^(key): [ˈpovo]
Rhymes: -ovo
Hyphenation: po‧vo

Noun

povo (accusative singular povon, plural povoj, accusative plural povojn)

ability

Ido

Noun

povo (plural povi)

Synonyms

(ability): habileso

Derived terms

povar

Portuguese

Portuguese Wikipedia has an article on:

povo

Wikipedia ^pt

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese poboo (displacing collateral form poblo), from Latin populus (“people, nation”), from Proto-Italic *poplos (“army”), maybe from Etruscan. Cognate with Galician pobo.

Pronunciation

(Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈpo.vu/
- (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈpo.vo/

(Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈpo.vu/
- (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈpo.bu/ [ˈpo.βu]

Noun

povo m (plural povos, metaphonic)

people
hamlet (a small village or a group of houses)
Synonym: lugarejo
(Brazil) mob

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:povo.

Related terms

Descendants

Kabuverdianu: povu
→ Makalero: povu
→ Mirandese: pobo