îu'iperereka

Old Tupi

Etymology

Uncertain. Sampaio and Navarro derive it from îu'i (frog) +‎ *pererek (jumper, jumpy),[1][2] although the original source doesn't mention the etymology and the adjective is not attested anywhere else.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /juˌʔi.pɛ.ɾɛˈɾɛ.ka/
  • Rhymes: -ɛka
  • Hyphenation: îu‧'i‧pe‧re‧re‧ka

Noun

îu'iperereka (unpossessable)

  1. (hapax legomenon) a green tree frog species. Further details are uncertain.
    • 1587, Gabriel Soares de Sousa, chapter CXV, in Notícia do Brasil, 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 245:
      Cria-se na agua outra casta de rãs, a que os indios chamam júiperega, que saltam muito, em tanto que dão saltos do chão em cima dos telhados, onde andam no inverno, e cantam de cima como chove; as quaes são verdes, e desovam tambem na agua em lugares humidos; e esfoladas comem-se como as outras.
      Another kind of frog lives in the water, that the Indians call “îu'iperereka”. They jump a lot, so much that they leap on the roofs, where they stay in the winter and from where they cry when it rains; they are green and also lay eggs in the water in damp places; and they can be eaten like the others after skinned.

Descendants

  • Old Tupi: *perereka
    • Nheengatu: perereka
    • Brazilian Portuguese: perereca

References

  1. ^ Teodoro Fernandes Sampaio (1901) “JUIPEREGA”, in O tupi na geografia nacional (in Portuguese), 5th edition, São Paulo: Editora Nacional, published 1987, →ISBN, page 271:corr. Gyi-pererega, a rã saltitante, conhecida vulgarmente por perereca.
  2. ^ Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (2013) “îu'iperereka”, 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 197, column 1

Further reading

  • Nelson Papavero, Dante Martins Teixeira (2014) Zoonímia tupi nos escritos quinhentistas europeus [Tupi zoonymy in the 16th-century European writings] (Arquivos NEHiLP; 3) (in Portuguese), São Paulo: FFLCH-USP, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 410