Alguidar (wide basin)

The alguidar is a round vessel wider at the mouth than at the base; Priberam says it is wider than it is tall, and Portuguese Wikipedia describes it as usually circular and conical with a turned-over rim. It comes from the Arabic al-gidar and in Old Portuguese meant a large bowl, escudilha grande. The material can be clay, wood, metal or plastic. In Portugal the word still names a large vessel, basin or pot of any material, not necessarily conical, and it turns up in dish names such as carne de alguidar, a pork dish, and the Aveiro liquor licor de alguidar.

It was a common household tool: used for making bread, for washing dishes, for resting the meat when making morcelas, and for bathing children. A municipal notice for a January-February 2026 exhibition in Redondo calls the alguidar an emblematic object of traditional Alentejo pottery. In Brazil, where the word travelled, modern bowls and basins have largely replaced it in kitchens, but it stays present in the Northeast; the Recôncavo Baiano is a main producing region, and Maragojipinho has about a hundred potteries, some of them dedicated to these vessels.