bico

Forms

bico m (plural bicos)^[1] Houaiss records bico in the 13th century, biquo in the 14th and byco in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin beccus (“beak, especially a cock's”), written Old Galician-Portuguese bico in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is Gaulish: Suetonius records it as the nickname Becco of Antonius Primus, and it meant above all a cock's beak.^[5][6] Wiktionary takes it from Gaulish *beccos, from Proto-Celtic *bekkos (“hook”).^[1] The DHLF more cautiously links it with a Celtic stem meaning “hook”.^[7] In the Romance languages it replaced the Latin rōstrum.^[4]

The same Latin word is Galician bico, Catalan bec, Occitan bèc, French bec and Italian becco.^[8][1] Corominas notes that Spanish pico goes back to it as well and is not a derivative of the verb picar: the Portuguese and Asturian forms with ⟨b-⟩ show the original consonant, and the influence of the verb changed it in Spanish.^[9] Machado asks whether the Portuguese pico also influenced the word, and a glossary of the DDGM assumes that it and the verb picar did affect its sound.^[4][10] Wiktionary calls beque a doublet.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1077 already names a point of land per illo bico de sub porto de belli; a place Palmaria de Bicco follows in 1108, and in 1214 a knight is nuno petri miles dictus bico “Nuno Pérez, a knight called Bico”.^[10][4] In Galician-Portuguese the Cantigas de Santa Maria use it for the beak of a goshawk that would not eat, o bic'ynchado muito “its beak much swollen”, and in the phrase tẽer no bico “to hold in one's beak”, that is, to have in one's power.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The beak gave many senses by likeness and by metonymy.^[2] Folqman (1755) has bico dos peitos “nipple”, bico do pé “tip of the foot” and the spout of an oil lamp where the wick comes out.^[11] Morais (1789) records trazer água no bico “to carry water in the beak”, of something that hides more than it shows, and pôr-se nos bicos dos pés “to stand on tiptoe”, to give oneself airs.^[12] Houaiss dates the sense “first stage of drunkenness” to the 18th century and an obsolete sense “a blow in wrestling” to the 15th.^[2]

The beak became the human mouth in informal speech (calar o bico “to shut up”) and a domestic bird counted as a head, hence a person in the sharing of costs.^[2][13] Later senses include a pen nib, a gas burner, a small debt and, in Brazil, an odd job, a pacifier, sugar-cane spirit and a kick with the toe of the shoe.^[2][14][1] Vieira (1871–1874) derived the word from French bec, a view the later dictionaries do not share.^[15][2]

Timeline

• 1077 – bico “point of land” in a Latin charter.^[4][10]
• 1214 – a knight dictus bico in a Latin document.^[10]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of a goshawk's swollen beak.^[10]
• 14th century – the spelling biquo; 15th century byco.^[2]
• c. 1430 – bico in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[16]
• 15th century – the obsolete sense “a blow in wrestling”.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it by Latin rostrum.^[17]
• 1755 – Folqman lists bico dos peitos and bico do pé.^[11]
• 18th century – the sense “first stage of drunkenness”.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais records trazer água no bico.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. beak, bill: the horny covering of a bird's jaws: O tucano tem um bico enorme.^[2][18][1]
2. The horny projection at the front of the head of other animals, as in turtles and cephalopods; the prominent snout of dolphins.^[2][1]
3. A domestic bird counted as a unit;^[2][13] (by extension) a person, in sharing out costs.^[2][13]
4. (informal) The human mouth, especially as the organ of speech: Não abriu o bico durante a reunião.^[2][18]
5. A pointed end or tip of something: the toe of a shoe, a nipple; a sharp angle or point cut in an edge.^[2][18]
6. (Portugal) A kiss.^[2][19]
7. (Brazil) A kick given with the toe of the shoe; in football, a shot struck with the point of the boot.^[2][1]
8. A pen nib.^[2][18]
9. A spout or nozzle through which something comes out, as of a kettle or a gas burner; the part of an oil lamp that holds the wick.^[2][14]
10. (informal) The first stage of drunkenness.^[2][19]
11. (informal, chiefly Brazil) An odd job done on the side; biscate.^[2][19][1]
12. A small debt.^[2][14]
13. A difficulty, a snag.^[2][14]
14. (Brazil) A pacifier; the teat of a feeding bottle.^[2][20]
15. (Brazil, informal) Sugar-cane spirit, cachaça.^[2]
16. (Portugal, vulgar) Fellatio.^[19][1]

Word family

• bica
• bicada
• bicar
• bicota
• bicudo
• biqueira
• biqueirada
• debicar
• embicar
• grão-de-bico
• bico-de-lacre

Related words

• beque
• Latin beccus
• Galician bico
• Spanish pico
• French bec

Usage notes

Common phrases include calar o bico “to keep quiet” and levar água no bico “to betray a hidden purpose”.^[13][21]

Houaiss, Machado and Aurélio also record a separate noun bico “mendicant Buddhist monk”, first found in the Peregrinação (1554–1583), which Dalgado takes from bhikkhu, Sanskrit भिक्षु (bhikṣu).^[2][4][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. bico
3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. bico
4. ^ a b c d e f Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. bico
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. beccus
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 70
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. bec
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1013
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 525
10. ^ a b c d e f Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. bico
11. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bico
12. ^ 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, 181
13. ^ 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. bico
14. ^ a b c d 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. bico
15. ^ 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, 767
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. bico
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bico
18. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. bico
19. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. bico
20. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. bico
21. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. bico
22. ^ Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 1, 126