Nick Taylor May 18, 2021:

@Marcos FYI
My original interpretation of the source term was...
cu.ran.dei.ro
(which fits with witch doctor - no pun intended)
pessoa que pretende curar sem diploma legal nem conhecimentos de medicina científica; benzedeiro; abençoadeiro etc.
indivíduo que pretende afastar doenças e feitiços por meio de rezas e benzeduras; curandeiro
The more PC terms for witch doctor being "shaman" - of course depending on the context but of course it depends on the rest of the text...where? when?
Personally I think "blesser" is a little too obscure in relation to the rest of the text even though it is a LITERAL translation.
Just my opinion OK

Nick Taylor May 18, 2021:

@Anybody who's listening NB!
I have no intention to deprecate the proposals of any answerers.
Nevertheless, in my whole 7 decades of existence I have only ever come across the following definition of "blesser"
Blesser
is a slang term for a rich man who offers support (typically financial and material) to a younger female companion in exchange for sex, friendship, etc.
She's on the lookout for a blesser
Hmmm ;-)

Marcos Roland (asker) May 17, 2021:

@Lara Lara, first of all, I am very sorry for having changed your name. "Anne", for God sake, where did I get this from? Too much writing here, you see, I wrote "your name" without checking. As for your opinion, O.K., but I am not relying just on the Brazilian speakers, far from that! The fact is that even among the native English speakers here, only you mentioned "blesser" (and I thank you again for that), and this indicates, in my view, that "blesser" still doesn't have such a general connotation. Anyway, as I said, I am ready to change the glossary enter to "blesser", if it's possible and the majority of the peers agree on that.

Lara Barnett May 17, 2021:

@ Marcos I still would definitely use just blesser. Although there may be some bilingual speakers who have "personally never seen 'blesser' used..." etc., English native speakers would definitely understand its usage here, while the term does carry an essential umbrella reference to healing, (even though it could have the single-function of blessing), because in usage we would always assume that an amount of healing would be involved. However, "to bless" is also simply "to bless" on its own, whether or not healing occurs.

Marcos Roland (asker) May 17, 2021:

@All Dear all, thank you again for such an enriching debate, I mean that! Thanks to it, I was able to access very interesting material. Answering to Anne, well, I am not sure that “blesser”, in English, carries in itself the meaning of “curing”, even in learned circles. You have quoted an excellent academic source, but just one source. Without mentioning the South-African “troubler” can do bad things, considering that it’s not impossible that the book I am translating will one day be read in South Africa by someone who bought it from the USA via Amazon, for example (I hope so!).
I would use “blesser” if I could insert a footnote in my translation. BUT – that’s the point! – I am afraid that, if I insert a footnote for every similar question raised by the text in focus, the eventual editor of my work will pull all MY hair out, if he doesn't prefer to have me shot!
However, this refers to my choice, in my translation. As for the glossary enter, I will have no problem in changing it to just “blesser”, if the majority of the peers vote for it! And I sincerely hope that one day “blesser” will be a generally accepted equivalent for “benzedor”, in its meaning for the Brazilian culture.

Mario Freitas May 17, 2021:

Plus In addition, a "new connotation" does not exclude the previous/original one(s) whatsoever.
And the reason why you've never seen it used to denote a healer is because a blesser is not a healer, as I mentioned below.

Marian Vieyra May 17, 2021:

@ Lara Blesser also features in the not at all academic Urban Dictionary, which was founded by a Californian. Using 'blesser' to translate 'benzedor' into English may cause confusion. I personally have never seen 'blesser' used in UK English to denote a healer, even though it exists in all 'proper' dictionaries, OED etc.

Lara Barnett May 17, 2021:

@ Marcos "Blesser" and "to bless" etc have a general linguistic meaning, that, here in UK, we would certainly use in this context, despite any academic narrative regarding "South African" usage.

Lara Barnett May 17, 2021:

@ Marian Your context in this article is South Africa, where the customs and narrative is completely different to that described in Marcos' article.

Marian Vieyra May 17, 2021:

Blesser Marcos, be aware of the newer connotation of blesser!
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244018806343

Mario Freitas May 17, 2021:

Blesser Now, this is a feasible solution.

Lara Barnett May 17, 2021:

@ Marcos To say "healing blesser" is tautologous because they almost mean the same thing. It is understood in English that a "blesser" will cause healing to occur, and does not require double stating. The article you refer to comes from Brazil, and may not be correct. What is more, if you search ".co.uk" sites for "healing blesser", there are no hits.

Marcos Roland (asker) May 16, 2021:

Hailing blesser Thank you all for your contributions in settling this issue, which for me has become very interesting, indeed, and enriching.
I am using in my translation an expression not directly quoted here, but which certainly came to mind in this discussion: healing blesser. It's a mix of healer and blesser. After I had this idea, I soon found on the Internet “healing blessing”, in the excellent article: https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0103-11042020000300762...
From the beginning, I was not satisfied with “healer”, because it is kind of a generic term, it doesn´t say anything about the specificity of the technique of blessing. Furthermore, it would sound deceptively familiar. I was not impressed with “folk healer” either, because it seems to me a somewhat pleonastic expression: for me, every healer is a folk healer.
I considered also “faith healer”, but I preferred “hailing blesser” just because it’s more specific.
I am not afraid of using a neologism, which may not “sound well or familiar” in English, because I think sometimes this can be a virtue, not a fault.
I've chosen “blesser” as the most helpful or the most inspiring answer.
Thank you again!

Mark Robertson May 13, 2021:

@All Cuidado, witch doctor tem uma carga disfórica e perjorativa.

"Witch doctor, a healer or benevolent worker of magic in a nonliterate society. The term originated in England in the 18th century and is generally considered to be pejorative and anthropologically inaccurate."

https://www.britannica.com/topic/witch-doctor

Egon Lessa May 13, 2021:

@Mario Entendo a preocupação com a exatidão do termo, mas acredito que até em português haja uma certa confusão/discordância entre essas palavras (incluo "rezador" também). Mas o artigo da Wikipedia do próprio termo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_doctor) diz:
"A witch doctor (...) is now more commonly a term used to refer to healers, particularly in regions which use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine."

"Traditional healing/medicine" é "also known as indigenous or folk medicine", ou seja, técnicas medicinais de povos originários, que acredito ser o assunto em questão aqui.

Mario Freitas May 13, 2021:

Benzedor vs. curandeiro É curioso que as traduções que conseguimos pesquisar quase todas dizem que benzedor é um "healer". Porém, o benzedor não é um curandeiro e não trabalha pela cura das pessoas. Ele benze e a bênção é uma proteção, não uma cura. Não consegui encontrar uma tradução cabível, mas não consigo concordar com "healer".