"A gravidade"
Translation:The gravity
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"gravidade" means gravity in the physical sense, and also the abstract sense i.e. seriousness.
The answer given is wrong though? In a medical context it must mean serious? Unless you're constantly falling over or you're talking to your cosmetic surgeon. "Por favor reverter os efeitos da gravidade sobre meus seios."
Haha! The word "gravity" also means "seriousness", though (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/gravity), so it could be used in a medical context: "The doctors were aware of the gravity of his illness".
Both are now accepted (07/11/2015). Thank you all for your reports, patience and feedback.
Good luck with your studies :)
Yes, seriousness is a more common translation in English, though gravity is fine.
I got confused, because grávida means "pregnant" - I guessed 'The pregnancy' here
Me too! You wouldn't expect gravity in a medical context, so I guess they put the word in here deliberately to notice the difference between gravity (a gravidade) and pregnancy (a gravidez).
in english in medicine a gravid uterus is pregnant.... does this have any connection to this word???
Not with "gravidade" per se, but it and the nouns for "pregnancy" (gravidez) and "pregnant" (grávida) all share the same etimology: the latin words gravis/gravidus (meaning full, abundant - therefore pregnant, but also heavy, burdened - therefore grave, serious).
Well, in fact yes, there is a Connection if I could translate literally this phrase ... "a gravid uterus is pregnant" would be "um útero grávido está prenhe". As we can see "gravid" and "pregnant" both words have different etymological origins for the same meaning, but in english is common to use the word "pregnant". In Brazil we use "grávida" for women only. The "pregnant" term (from Latim PREGNANS) has became "prenhe" which is used for animals only. Despite these words coming from the same radicals they generated new words that have been modified over time with daily use in every language and started to produce different words with different meanings. So... back to the major point (about gravid term) the prefix "gravid" generated the nouns "gravid.ade" (which took the meaning seriousness) and "gravid.ez" (which took the meaning full, abundant) Then "gravidade" can be "something grave" or "seriousness" or "gravity", but will never be pregnancy (gravidez)
It's only THE gravity in English when it means the severity. When it refers to the physical attraction between two objects that have mass it's (almost always) simply gravity.
I answered "gravity" without "the" and it was accepted :)
From what I understand, in BR-Portuguese, the article can be used but is not always translated literally with abstract objects. So, "a gravidade" can be translated simply as "gravity" or "the gravity" depending on the context.
Another example is paz/a paz (peace).
Please correct me if this is not correct. I am a little unclear whether the article is optional or always required for abstract objects in Portuguese.