amouco

Forms

amouco (feminine amouca, masculine plural amoucos, feminine plural amoucas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Malay amuk (“a furious attack; a man possessed by fury”), which Houaiss, Cunha, Machado and Nascentes write ⟨āmoq⟩ after Dalgado.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Portuguese form was the word's way into Europe: Etymonline traces amok to the Malay word, used at first as a noun or adjective for a frenzied Malay in the Portuguese form, and Wiktionary lists the English word, with Amok and the other European forms taken from it, as descendants of the Portuguese word.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to before 1515.^[2] Machado quotes the Peregrinação (chapter 27) in the 16th century, where the queen of Aru urges her men a se fazerem amoucos “to make themselves amoucos”, that is, to vow to fight to the death.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Malaya and India an amouco was a man possessed by fury and despair who resolved, usually by oath and with ceremonies, to avenge an injury to himself or his lord at the cost of his own life.^[7] Morais's dictionary of 1789 describes such men shaving their heads before they went out to kill.^[8] Bluteau in 1712 and the Academy's dictionary of 1793 also record it as a term of India, and Diogo do Couto explains it as the name, in the language of Malacca, for men who resolve to die killing all they can.^[7]

In Portugal itself the word lived on mainly in a figurative sense, a servile man who defends and flatters his superiors at any cost, or a partisan who defends a party and its leaders;^[7][9] Dalgado found it in political language and also records the derivative amoucado from the sermons of Francisco de Mendonça.^[7][9] Modern dictionaries add the fanatic of an opinion or a sect, and the senses “a sudden violent fit” and “ill temper”.^{[2][10][11][12]}

Timeline

• before 1515 – first record, according to Houaiss.^[2]
• c. 1516 – the Book of Duarte Barbosa calls such men Amuco, as quoted from its English translation.^[6]
• 16th century – the Peregrinação has se fazerem amoucos.^[4]
• 1670s – the English phrase run amok.^[6]
• 1712 – Bluteau lists amouco as a term of India.^[7]
• 1789 – Morais describes the amouco who vows himself to death.^[8]
• 1899 – Figueiredo adds the figurative sense “servile man”.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Seized by fury, ready to die; desperately obsessed.^{[2][13][11][14]}
2. Servile, fawning.^[2][11]

Noun

1. (historical, India and the East) A man who swore to fight to the death for his lord or his own honour.^{[2][12][9][14]}
2. (figurative) A servile person who defends and flatters his superiors in everything.^{[2][9][10][14]}
3. A fanatic who defends a sect, a party or his own opinions blindly.^{[2][12][10][15]}
4. A sudden, violent fit followed by depression; ill temper.^[2][11]

Related words

• amoque
• Malay amuk
• English amok

Usage notes

Houaiss and Aurélio also record a separate adjective amouco “deaf”, the same as mouco, formed with the prefix a-.^[2][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. amouco
3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. amouco
4. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. amouco
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. amouco
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. amok
7. ^ a b c d e Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1916), Contribuições para a lexicologia luso-oriental, Lisboa: Academia das Sciências, p. 37
8. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 77
9. ^ a b c d e Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. amouco
10. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. amouco
11. ^ a b c d 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. amouco
12. ^ a b c 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. amouco
13. ^ 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. amouco
14. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. amouco
15. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 601