mboîgûasu

Old Tupi

Etymology

Either a blend of mboîa (“snake”) +‎ sygûasu (“deer”)[1] or from mboîa +‎ *gûasu (“deer”).[2]

Some sources may suggest that the term derives from mboîa +‎ -gûasu (augmentative suffix), but since mboîa is a paroxytone word, its augmentative form should actually be mboîusu. Furthermore, the Portuguese term used to refer to the species in the Historia naturalis Brasiliae, cobra-de-veado, may be a calque from Old Tupi.[2]

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -u
  • Hyphenation: mboî‧gûa‧su

Noun

mboîgûasu (unpossessable)

  1. A snake. Further details are uncertain. Possibilities include:
    1. sukuriîu[2]

References

  1. ^ Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (2013) “mboîgûasu”, 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 271, column 2
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 “Gûasú, usú, asú em João Staden”
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