pé-de-pica

How to explain in english what is a pé-de-pica? The northeastern Brazilian portuguese allows for many creative expressions, slang, words and phrases that mean different things, according to context. Sometimes even the natives have communication issues amongst each other.

The complex word "pé-de-pica" is in itself the combination of 2 slang words that might have several meanings, with a simple conector between them.

The word pé means "foot" most of the time, both the anatomic part of our body and the measurement. But there are several second meaning for the word. The one utilized as part of the word "pé-de-pica" refers to trees. Yes, trees.

In northwestern slang, the word "pé" is used to refer to a tree of unknown name, specifying its type by referring to the fruit it bears. For example, a "pé-de-manga" refers to a "mangueira", tree that bears the mango fruit. (pé = tree; de = of; manga = mango). Pé-de-planta (tree of plant in english) refers to a generic tree.

Now the word "pica" is a unpolished slang used to refer to "penis" (equivalent to cock or dick in english)

But pé-de-pica, the combination of three words into another means an entirely different thing. It has nothing to duo with the bizarre metaphorical image of a tree that bears penises as fruits.

Pé-de-pica is a slang word (a rather funny word, instead of the offensive "pica", though not something appropriated for granny's ears either) that means "a big problem, likely to get out of hand" that is usually caused by human stupidity.