cabra

Forms

cabra f (plural cabras, masculine cabrão or bode, masculine plural cabrões or bodes)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin capra (“she-goat”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cabra in the oldest texts.^[2][1][3] The Latin noun is the feminine of caper (“he-goat”).^[4][1] Houaiss notes that the zoological sense comes directly from the scientific name of the genus.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician cabra, Spanish cabra, Catalan cabra, French chèvre, Italian capra and Romanian capră.^[5][1]

Wiktionary derives the Latin masculine from Proto-Indo-European *kápros (“buck, he-goat”), with cognates in Ancient Greek κάπρος (kápros, “wild boar”) and Old Norse hafr (“he-goat”).^[1][4] De Vaan thinks a loanword more likely, since no single Indo-European word for “goat” can be reconstructed.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A document of 1257 already has et V cabras cada ano para lecte “and five goats every year for milk”.^[6] Houaiss's first date is 1278.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of cabras montesas “wild goats”, and the Crónica Troiana of creatures with feet like goats.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Later dictionaries add a fish (Barbosa, 1611), a water insect that looks like a spider (Morais, 1813) and the small crane also called cábrea.^[7][8][9] As an insult the word was applied to women thought loose or bad-tempered.^[2][10] In Coimbra a cabra was the university bell that called students to their lessons.^[11]

In 1813 Morais records the word for a child of a mulatto and a Black parent.^[8] In Brazil the masculine o cabra went on to mean a person of mixed ancestry, then a hired gunman or bandit, a farm labourer, and in the north-east simply “a guy, a fellow”, often in cabra da peste.^[2][12][13] Houaiss and Aurélio treat these senses as part of the same word, while Wiktionary takes the masculine noun as a variant of cabrão.^[2][12][1]

Old Tupi borrowed the word as kabará.^[1]

Timeline

• 1257 – V cabras in a document.^[6]
• 1278 – Houaiss's first date.^[2]
• 13th century – cabras montesas in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[6]
• c. 1430 – first record in the CTA, in the Horto do Esposo.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Cabra with Latin capra.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds the fish peyxe-cabra and cabra montés.^[7]
• 1813 – Morais records the senses “water insect” and “person of mixed ancestry” and the game cabra cega.^[8]
• 1899 – Figueiredo enters the Brazilian sense “mestizo” as a separate article.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A goat, especially the female, the nanny goat;^[1] (zoology) any animal of the genus Capra.^[2][12][1]
2. (derogatory) A loose woman; a bad-tempered woman who shouts a lot.^[2][12][1]
3. A small crane for lifting weights; a cábrea.^[2][9]
4. A red fish of the gurnard family; a water insect resembling a spider.^[2][9]
5. (Brazil) In the jogo do bicho, the sixth group.^[2]
6. (Brazil, masculine) A person of mixed ancestry.^[2][12][16]
7. (Brazil, masculine) A hired gunman or henchman; a cangaceiro.^[2][12][16]
8. (Brazil, masculine) A farm labourer.^[2][12]
9. (north-eastern Brazil, masculine) A guy, a fellow: Aquele cabra é de confiança.^[2][12][1]
10. (Portugal, slang) A police informer.^[2][16]

Word family

• cabra-de-leque
• cabrinha
• cabra-cega

Related words

• cabrão
• cabreiro
• cabrito
• caprino
• Latin capra
• Spanish cabra

Usage notes

Cabra cega is blind man's buff, and pé de cabra a small crowbar.^[17] In the north-east of Brazil cabra da peste praises a brave or capable man, but can also mean a feared, ruthless one.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cabra
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. cabra
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1647
6. ^ a b c d 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. cabra
7. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cabra
8. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 314
9. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cabra
10. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. cabra
11. ^ 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. cabra
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cabra
13. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. cabra
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cabra
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cabra
16. ^ 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. cabra
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. 2, 14