'Ypupîara
Old Tupi
Alternative forms
| Historical spellings | |
|---|---|
| Anchieta (1555) | Igpupiára |
| VLB (1622) | Jgpupiara |
Etymology
From 'y + pupîara, literally “what is inside the water”.[1]
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -aɾa
Proper noun
'Ypupîara
- a hostile water sprite, which was said to drown people crossing water bodies
- [1587, Gabriel Soares de Sousa, chapter CXXVII, 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 256:
- Não ha duvida senão que se encontram na Bahia e nos reconcavos d’ella, muitos homens marinhos, a que os indios chamam pela sua lingua upupiara […]
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)]
Usage notes
- Further details about this being, or if it was even a real animal, are unknown. In fact, the first and one of the only firsthand descriptions of it was made by Anchieta in 1560, who simply described it as some water demon, not giving any details about its appearance.[2] Nearly all subsequent writings were either fabrications, or fanciful depictions of what some modern authors believe to be sea lions.[3]
Descendants
- → Portuguese: Ipupiara
References
- ^ Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (2013) “'Ypupîara”, 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 531, column 1
- ^ Joseph of Anchieta (1560) “Daemones Indigenis […] ” (chapter XLVI), in Epistola quamplurimarum rerum naturalium quae S. Vicentii (nunc S. Pauli) provinciam incolunt sistens descriptionem (in Renaissance Latin); republished as Diogo de Toledo Lara Ordonhez, editor, Lisboa: Typis Academiae, 1799, page 30
- ^ 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, , →ISBN, →ISSN, pages 121–133
- Pero de Magalhães Gândavo (1576) chapter 9, in Hiſtoria da prouincia ſãcta Cruz a qui vulgarmẽte chamamos Brasil [History of the Holy Cross province, which we vulgarly call Brazil][1] (overall work in Portuguese), Lisbon: Antonio Gonsaluez, page 32: “Hipupiára”
- Fernão Cardim (p. 1583) “A Treatiſe of Braſil, written by a Portugall which had long lived there”, in Samuel Purchas, transl., Francis Cooke, compiler, Pvrchas his Pilgrimes, part IV, book VII, chapter I § VI (overall work in English), London: H. Fetherston, published 1625, page 1315: “Ypupiapra”
- Francisco Soares (1590–1596) “Homẽs marinhos”, 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 85; republished as Antônio Geraldo da Cunha, compiler, Coisas Notáveis do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro: INL, 1966, page 199, line 2214: “Jgpupiara”
- anonymous author (1622) “Cousa mâ q. anda nagoa [Evil thing that moves in the water]”, in Vocabulario na lingoa Braſilica (overall work in Portuguese), Piratininga; republished as Carlos Drummond, editor, Vocabulário na Língua Brasílica, 2nd edition, volume 1, São Paulo: USP, 1953, page 85: “Jgpupiara”