Going down a Ceara highway you will come across signs saying Fiscalização Electrônica. Then there will be a section of road overseen by tireless, expressionless robot eyes, scanning the road for speed limit offenders. Your bus driver will slow down to the maximum allowed speed on approaching these signs. Just as he will when approaching a lombada sign, which is not a Latin American dance but a speed hump.
When I see the fiscalização sign, I am reminded of Tim Parks's stories of life in Italy (An Italian Education is the one this tale comes from) with an Italian wife and children. Non essere fiscale, Papà, says his young son, asking not to be sent to bed on time. What his son means is don't be so strict. Italians have ways of getting around rules that are too fiscale. From the Latin word meaning a basket for collecting public revenue we come to this meaning of being controlled or being checked, and a penalty levied for infractions, in this Portuguese word. This kind of fiscale is harder to get around, unfortunately.
So next time your treasurer rabbits on about fiscal responsibility, remember the ancient Latin roots of this word.
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