Article Nº 0689 Word, term or place-name Vol. I · p. 366
Calhau (pebble beach)
Original title: Calhau
Explains the Madeiran popular use of 'calhau' (pebble) for a stony beach of loose rounded stones, quoting Álvaro de Azevedo's description of the dark, roaring pebble shores.
In Madeira, people give the name calhau – pebble beach (calhau) – to a stony beach, taking the part for the whole. Dr Álvaro de Azevedo writes in the Diccionario Universal Portuguez Illustrado: ‘... beaches which are called Calhao because they are made not of sand but of loose stones or pebbles (calháos), which, black, rounded, many of them large, of an inhospitable and sombre appearance, produce, when the undertow churns them, a dreadful roar, never drowned by the thunderous howling of the gales...’
People mentioned
- Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo 1825–1898