almíscar

Forms

almíscar m (plural almíscares)^[1] The 15th century wrote almizquere, almisquire, almjscar and almiscre.^[2][3] Almiscre is still the form of a 16th-century chronicle, and Feijó (1734) names it beside almíscar.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic المسك (almísk), from Arabic مِسْك (misk, “musk”), with the Arabic article ال (al-) fused to the noun.^[6][2][3] Corriente explains the final /r/ as a parasitic consonant, the same that appears in Spanish alféizar.^[7] The Arabic word comes from Persian مشک (mošk), and that from Sanskrit मुष्क (muṣka, “testicle, scrotum”), the musk gland being likened to a testicle.^[1][6][2][8] Corriente places a Middle Persian (Pahlavi) stage between the Arabic and the Sanskrit word.^[6]

The same Arabic word gave Spanish almizcle (first as Old Spanish almizque, 1406–1412), Galician almiscre and Catalan almesc.^[9][7] The Persian word reached Europe a second time through Ancient Greek μόσχος (móskhos) and Late Latin muscus (“musk”), the source of French musc.^[10][1] Cunha derives the old variants musgo (14th century) and musco (15th century) directly from the Latin word;^[3][4] Machado keeps the Latin word for musk apart from its homonym meaning “moss”.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1450, names almizquere together with jet (aziuiche), cords and other things.^[4][2] In 1500 the account of Pedro Álvares Cabral's voyage says of a people that they “trade much in gold, silver, ambergris, musk and pearls” (ouro, prata, ambar, almiscar e pérolas).^[4][11] In both the word means the perfume substance itself.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Dalgado's glossary of Portuguese in Asia quotes the word from the chronicles of the East.^[11] Bluteau in 1712 explained the Arabic word, after Diogo de Urrea, as “scent pouch”, or as the name of the animal that produces the scent.^[12] Morais described it in 1813 as the clotted blood in the bladder of a kind of gazelle or wild goat.^[13]

The modern dictionaries extend the word to similar substances from other animals and plants, to synthetic musks and to the smell itself, and use it informally for an unpleasant taste.^[2][14] In Brazil it names several plants with perfumed leaves or resin, and in the north-east the strong smell of fish.^[2][15] The derivatives almiscarar “to scent with musk” and almiscareira are recorded from 1813, and almiscareiro “musk deer” from 1836.^[3]

Timeline

• 1450 – first record, spelt almizquere.^[4][2]
• 1500 – almiscar in the account of Cabral's voyage.^[4]
• 16th century – almiscre in a text by Galvão.^[4]
• 1697 – Pereira's dictionary has Almiscar, translated moschus.^[16]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives an Arabic etymology for almiscar.^[12]
• 1734 – Feijó lists almíscar and almiscre.^[5]
• 1813 – Morais records almiscarar and almiscareira.^[3]
• 1871 – Vieira derives the word from Arabic.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. musk, the strong-smelling substance from a gland on the belly of the male musk deer (almiscareiro), used as a fixative in perfumes.^[2][18][1]
2. A similar strong-smelling substance from other animals, such as the civet or the musk ox.^[2][19]
3. A synthetic compound with a musk-like smell, or an essence made from musk.^[2][18]
4. The smell of musk, or any strong and lasting smell like it.^[2][20]
5. (informal) An unpleasant taste.^[2][14]
6. (north-eastern Brazil) The strong smell of fish or of the sea; pitiú.^[2][15]
7. (Brazil, botany) A shrub or tree of the storax family (Styrax glabratum) of the cerrado, with perfumed leaves, and the balsamic resin taken from it; also the name of some other aromatic plants.^[2][14]

Word family

• almiscarar
• almiscareira
• almiscareiro

Related words

• moscado
• moscatel
• Spanish almizcle
• Late Latin muscus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. almíscar
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. almíscar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. almíscar
5. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. almíscar
6. ^ a b c Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. almíscar
7. ^ a b Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 194
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. almíscar
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 195
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. musc
11. ^ a b Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 1, 27
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. almiscar
13. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 101
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. almíscar
15. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. almíscar
16. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. almiscar
17. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 1, 323
18. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. almíscar
19. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. almíscar
20. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. almíscar