boitatá

Portuguese

Alternative forms

Etymology

Ultimately from Old Tupi mba'etatá (“will o' the wisp”, literally “fire thing”). Because of the similarity, the etymology would be later reanalyzed as mboîtatá (literally “fire snake”), thus giving origin to the modern myth in Brazilian folklore of a fire serpent.[1]

Pronunciation

  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /boj.taˈta/ [boɪ̯.taˈta]

  • Rhymes: -a
  • Hyphenation: boi‧ta‧tá

Proper noun

boitatá m (plural boitatás)

  1. (Brazil, folklore) term used to designate the will o' the wisp phenomenon and, from this deriving, some mythical entities

References

  1. ^ Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (2013) 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
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