urubu

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese urubu.

urubu (plural urubus)

1. A vulture of South America; a New World vulture.

• IPA^(key): /uɾuˈβu/
• Rhymes: -u
• Hyphenation: u‧ru‧bu
• Homophone: Urubu

Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *uruβu, from Proto-Tupian *urupˀu.

Cognate with Sateré-Mawé uruwu and Guaraní yryvu.

urubu (unpossessable)

1. New World vulture (any vulture in the family Cathartidae)

• Nheengatu: urubú
• → Portuguese: urubu, urubú (1931-prescribed spelling)
  • → Catalan: urubú
  • → English: urubu
  (see there for further descendants)

• pataku

Unknown.

urubu (unpossessable)

1. moss

• Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (2013) “urubu”, 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 501, column 2

• urubú (1931-prescribed spelling)

Borrowed from Old Tupi urubu, from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *uruβu, from Proto-Tupian *urupˀu.

• Rhymes: -u
• Hyphenation: u‧ru‧bu

urubu m (plural urubus)

1. New World vulture
2. (Brazil, colloquial) any vulture

   Synonym: abutre

   • 1974, “Urubu tá com raiva do boi”, performed by Baiano e os Novos Caetanos:

     Urubu tá com raiva do boi / E eu já sei que ele tem razão / É que o urubu tá querendo comer / Mais o boi não quer morrer / Não tem alimentação

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. (figurative) usurer

   Synonyms: agiota, abutre

4. (Brazil, figurative) funeral director
5. (Brazil, figurative) jinx (person who brings bad luck)
6. (Brazil, figurative, derogatory) ambulance chaser, vulture

   Synonym: abutre

7. (Brazil, figurative, sometimes derogatory) a person who wears all black, goth
8. (Brazil, figurative, soccer, slang, sometimes derogatory) a player or supporter of CR Flamengo football team

   Synonyms: flamenguista, rubro-negro

9. (Brazil, figurative, soccer, slang, sometimes derogatory) referee
10. (Brazil, dated) Urubú-Kaapor people
11. (uncountable, Brazil, dated) Urubú-Kaapor language

The gender of this Portuguese zoonym is always masculine: when the gender of the being itself must be specified, use “urubu-macho” for male, and “urubu-fêmea” for female. Here, fêmea is treated as an undeclinable noun and doesn't necessarily need to agree in gender with the referent, but would change to fêmeo if so.

• → Catalan: urubú
• → English: urubu

urubu m or f (plural urubus) (Brazil, dated, relational)

1. of the Urubú-Kaapor people
2. of the Urubú-Kaapor language

• “urubu”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “urubu”, in Dicio – Dicionário Online de Português (in Portuguese), São Paulo: 7Graus, 2009–2025
• “urubu”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “urubu”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “urubu”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

From an extinct Central Sudanic language; Compare Lugbara abu (“fat, stout”) and Mangbetu eebu (“fat of animal”). Ultimately from Proto-Central Sudanic *Bu (“fat, grease”)

urubu class 11 (plural imbu class 10) (Kirundi)

1. yogurt, sour milk (clabbered), sour taste

• Early history in eastern Africa’s Great Lakes region: Linguistic, ecological, and archaeological approaches, ca. 500 B.C. to ca. A.D. 1000‎^[1], 1990, page 557