What does “bandidão” mean in Portuguese?

Bandido means a crook or outlaw. Swap its ending for -ão and you get bandidão: not just any crook but a big, scary, major-league baddie. That -ão is Portuguese’s augmentative, the size-and-intensity ending that turns ordinary nouns into bigger, louder versions of themselves. It’s one of the language’s most productive word-building moves, and once you hear it you can spot it everywhere.

The same suffix powers a huge family of everyday words: carro (car) → carrão (a flashy, powerful car), livro (book) → livrão (a hefty tome), amigo (friend) → amigão (a true, close buddy). It comes from Latin -ōnem and can carry size, intensity, warmth, or — as with a bandidão — a touch of menace, all depending on the base word. Here a kid casting Wonder Woman against the household villain reaches naturally for bandidão, which is exactly how Brazilian children absorb the pattern: the bad guy isn’t a mere bandido, he’s a bandidão.