bambu

Forms

bambu m (plural bambus)^[1] The 16th-century authors on India also write mambu (1563) and mambum.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The origin is obscure.^[4][5] Wiktionary, Figueiredo, the DLP and Aurélio make it borrowed from Malay bambu, and Wiktionary traces that to Kannada ಬಂಬು (bambu).^[6][7][8][9] Houaiss and Cunha, following Dalgado, prefer the common Marathi name of the plant (also used in Gujarati), and find a Malay source less likely, because Malay usually calls the plant buluh.^[2][3][4] Dalgado, as Machado quotes him, notes that Marsden recorded the word as pure Malay, Crawfurd as native to the west coast of Sumatra, and Wilson as Kannada.^[4]

The form ⟨mambu⟩ of the old writers on India was, in Dalgado's view, either really used in the Konkan or a dissimilation in Portuguese mouths.^[4] Etymonline instead thinks the English word, borrowed from Dutch bamboe or from Portuguese, probably comes from Malay samambu.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to 1562.^[2] The Colóquios of the next year have mambu: the people call the sugar of the plant sacarmambum, “sugar of mambu”, because the Indians call the canes of that tree mambú.^[4][2] The form bambu occurs in the same century in Francisco de Andrade's Crónica de D. João III, where a fort is ringed by a moat full of sharp stakes of bambus machos.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Feijó in 1734 describes bambu as a kind of cane of India.^[11] Vieira calls it the name the Portuguese gave to Bambusa arundinacea, and quotes Lucena's life of St Francis Xavier for the stick used for beating (a poder de tantos bambus) and records the threat só com um bambu.^[12] The word came to mean the cane or walking stick made from the stem, and in India also a linear measure of 18 palmos.^[5][8] It also names the pole that circus acrobats hold to keep their balance on the wire.^[2][9]

From Portuguese the word passed into bambú, bambù, bambou, bambú, bambú and bamboe, according to Wiktionary.^[6]

Timeline

• 1562 – first record.^[2]
• 1563 – mambu and sacarmambum in the Colóquios.^[2][4]
• 16th century – bambus in the Crónica de D. João III.^[4]
• 1590s – English bamboo, from Dutch or Portuguese.^[10]
• 1613 – the collective bambual first recorded, as the plural bambuaes.^[13]
• 1734 – Feijó lists Bambu as an Indian cane.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) bamboo, the common name of many woody grasses, especially of the genus Bambusa, with very tall hollow stems.^[2][9][6]
2. The stem of these plants, used as a fishing rod, an ox goad and for many other purposes.^[2][5]
3. A walking stick (bengala) or staff made from the stem.^[2][9][8]
4. The pole held by acrobats on the wire to keep their balance.^[2][9]
5. (India) A linear measure of 18 palmos.^[8]

Word family

• bambual
• bambuzal

Related words

• taquara
• Malay bambu

References

1. ^ a b c 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. bambu
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. bambu
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. bambu
5. ^ a b c 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. bambu
6. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. bambu
7. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 170
8. ^ a b c d 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. bambu
9. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. bambu
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. bamboo
11. ^ 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. bambu
12. ^ 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, 715
13. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. bambual