História da Carochinha

• Estória da Carochinha

Literally, “story/tale of the little beetle”. First attested in the written record by Adolfo Coelho in his 1879 ethnographic folktale collection Contos Populares Portuguezes in prose form. Teófilo Braga later attested the story in nursery rhyme form in Porto and in the island of São Jorge, writing it down in his 1885 work O povo portuguez nos seus costumes, crenças e tradições.

História da Carochinha f

1. A fable about a female beetle in search of a husband. In all versions of the story she eventually agrees to marry a gluttonous rat named João Ratão, who accidentally falls into a boiling cauldron where the wedding dinner is being prepared (ending his own life in all but the most sanitized versions of the story). The story is thus a cautionary tale against gluttony and poor self-control.

   Synonym: A Carochinha

• história da carochinha (any folktale, an old wives' tale, a cock-and-bull story)