It is now possible to write “peeled” without a capital letter. The nickname of the legendary Brazilian footballer, who died on December 29 at the age of 82, is since Wednesday one of the 167,000 words in the dictionary of common names of the Portuguese language and its 265 million speakers around the world.
The nickname of Edson Arantes do Nascimento, considered by many to be the greatest footballer of all time, is used colloquially in Brazil as a synonym for excellence. In the Michaelis dictionary of the Portuguese language, “pelé” is now synonymous with “exceptional, incomparable, unique”. The Brazilian Academy of Letters, which governs Portuguese in Brazil, where 215 million Portuguese speakers live, has not, however, introduced this word in its digital version.
“Something or someone out of the ordinary”
In the online version of the Michaelis dictionary, the definition of this new common name is: “Something or someone out of the ordinary, something or someone whose quality, value or superiority cannot be equated with nothing or anyone else, like Pelé, nickname of Edson Arantes do Nascimento (1940-2022), considered the greatest sportsman of all time”. Examples are also given for its use: “He is the pelé of basketball”, “she is the pelé of Brazilian drama”, “he is the pelé of medicine”.
This addition to the dictionary is the result of a joint campaign launched on April 14 by the Pelé Foundation, in partnership with Santos, the club where the triple world champion (1958, 1962, 1970) shone from 1956 to 1974, and the Sportv channel, of the Globo group, the country’s largest media conglomerate.
Four months after his death, the eternal number 10 of Santos and the Seleçao is still the subject of many tributes, such as a minute of silence before all matches in the Brazilian championship and South American international competitions such as the Copa Libertadores or the Copa Sudamericana.