pirãîa
Old Tupi
Alternative forms
| Historical spellings | |
|---|---|
| Lamy (1540) | pyrain |
| d'Abbeville (1614) | pyrain / pirain |
| VLB (1622) | pirãnha / piraya |
| Marcgrave (1648) | piraya |
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *pirãj. By surface analysis, pirá (“fish”) + ãî (“toothed”) + -a.[1] Cognate with Guaraní pirãi.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [piˈɾã.ja]
- Rhymes: -ãja
- Hyphenation: pi‧rã‧îa
Noun
pirãîa (unpossessable)
- piranha (certain carnivorous freshwater fish of the family Serrasalmidae)[2]
- [1587, Gabriel Soares de Sousa, chapter CXLIV, in Notícia do Brasil (in Portuguese), Salvador; republished as Francisco Adolpho de Varnhagen, editor, Tratado descriptivo do Brazil em 1587, 2nd edition, Rio de Janeiro: João Ignancio da Silva, 1879, page 274:
- Piranha quer dizer tesoura: é peixe de rios grandes, e onde o ha, é muito; e é da feição dos sargos, e maior, de côr mui prateada; este peixe é muito gordo e gostoso, e toma-se á linha; mas tem taes dentes que corta o anzol cerceo […]
- “Piranha” means scissors: it's a fish of large rivers, and there are lots of them; it's similar to the sargos, but bigger and very silvery; it's a very fat and tasty fish, and is fished by line; but it has such teeth that it cuts the hook clean.]
- [1614, Claude d'Abbeville, chapter XL, in Hiſtoire de la Miſsion des Peres Capucins en L'Iſle de Maragnan et terres circonuoiſines [History of the Mission of the Capuchin Fathers in the Island of Maranhão and surrounding lands] (in French), Paris: Imprimerie de François Huby, page 247:
- Le Pyrain eſt long d'vn pied & large d'vn demy pied, il eſt ſans eſcailles, & de couleur iaune & rouge il a les dents qui couppent plus que des ciſeaux, delà vient que les Indiens le nomment Pyrain qui ſignifie ciſeaux.
- The “pirãî[a]” is one feet long and half a feet large, has no scales, and is yellow and red colored; it's teeth cut like scissors, which is way the Indians have named it “pirãî[a]”, meaning scissors.]
- [c. 1631, Christovão de Lisboa, Historia dos animaes e arvores do Maranhão [History of Maranhão's animals and trees][1] (in Portuguese), Lisbon, page 173r:
- A piranha quer dizer tezoura e he peixe de hũ palmo bom as mahoires ele por riba das costas he pardo & pelo meio do corpo pratiado & uermelho pela barigua […] esta armado de demtes em feição de cerra […]
- The “piranha” means scissors, and it's a one-span long fish. It's dark on the back, silver on the middle and red on the belly […] It's armed with teeth similar to saws.]
- [1648, Georg Marcgrave, Willem Piso, Historia Naturalis Brasiliae [Brazilian Natural History], Rerum Naturalium Historiae, book IV, chapter XII (in Latin), Amsterdam: Elzevir, page 164:
- Piraya & Piranha Braſilienſibus: Piſcis […]
- “Pirãîa” and “piranha” from Brazil: Fish.]
Derived terms
- piranhatinga
- pirãîgûara
Descendants
Noun
pirãîa (possessable)
- scissors[3]
- [1614, Claude d'Abbeville, chapter XLVII, in Hiſtoire de la Miſsion des Peres Capucins en L'Iſle de Maragnan et terres circonuoiſines [History of the Mission of the Capuchin Fathers in the Island of Maranhão and surrounding lands] (in French), Paris: Imprimerie de François Huby, page 283v:
- Ils ont leurs panniers qu'ils appellent Ourou ou Caramemo […] dans leſquels ils ſerrent leur Ouärouä, c'eſt à dire mirouers, leurs peignes qu'ils appellent Keuäр leurs Xé ou Keſſé couſteaux, leurs Pirain ciſeaux […]
- They have baskets they call “uru” or “karamemû[ã]” […] inside which they store their “ûaruá”, that's to say mirrors, they combs that they call “kyûab[a]”, their “kysé” — knives, their “pirãî[a]” — scissors.]
References
- ^ Navarro, Eduardo de Almeida (2013), “pirãîa”, in Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil [Dictionary of Old Tupi: The Classical Indigenous Language of Brazil] (overall work in Portuguese), São Paulo: Global, →ISBN, page 385, column 1
- ^ Francisco Soares (1590–1596), “Dos peixes das agoas doçes”, in De alguãs Cousas mais notaueis do brasil e de alguñs costumes dos Indios [Of some of Brazil's most notable things and some Indian customs] (overall work in Portuguese), page 89; republished as Antônio Geraldo da Cunha, compiler, Coisas Notáveis do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro: INL, 1966, page 205, line 2296: “Piranha”
- ^ anonymous author (1622), “Tisoura [Scissors]”, in Vocabulario na lingoa Braſilica (overall work in Portuguese), Piratininga; republished as Carlos Drummond, editor, Vocabulário na Língua Brasílica, 2nd edition, volume 2, São Paulo: USP, 1953, page 129: “Pirãnha, Piraya [Piranha, Pirãîa]”