Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Desenrascanço

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Desenrascanço (impossible translation into English) is a Portuguese word used in certain specific contexts and situations. It is used to express an ability to solve a problem without the adequate tools or proper technique to do so, and by use of sometimes imaginative resourcefulness when facing new situations. Achieved when resulting in a hypothetical good-enough solution. When that good solution escapes us we get a failure. Most Portuguese people strongly believe it to be one of their most valued virtues and a living part of their culture. However, some critics (...) are of the opinion that the concept is related to the discoveries period of the 15th century. But sceptics doubt there is any substantial proof of that relation.
In the 16th and 17th centuries it was very common for other exploring nations, such as the Dutch, to bring a Portuguese national along during the voyages, because the Portuguese were allegedly the most skilled and knowledgeable in the proper handling of the occasional emergency aboard the ship when the control of the vessel was given to them (what is known among the Portuguese as 'desenrascanço'). Desenrascanço is in fact the opposite of planning: it's managing that any problem does not get completely out of hand and beyond solution.