ema

Forms

ema f (plural emas)^[1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[2][3] One explanation makes it borrowed from Arabic نعامة (naʿāma, “ostrich”): Vieira in 1871 already derived it from Arabic, the Academia's DLP and Porto Editora give the same etymon, and Corriente, Pereira and Vicente trace it through a Moroccan form of the Arabic word, with one of its two nasal consonants lost by haplology.^[4][5][6][7] Nascentes reports that Dozy, Engelmann and Lokotsch held the Arabic origin, and that Duarte Nunes do Leão had already proposed it.^[8]

The other explanation is Dalgado's: the Portuguese gave the name to the cassowary of the Moluccas, from a local name emeu or eme, and later extended it to the ostrich; he rejects the Arabic origin as groundless.^[9] Nascentes adds that Dalgado was later told the cassowary is called samu and sam on two islands, but nowhere by the first form, so that the Portuguese word might come from the third.^[8] Houaiss lists both proposals, the Moluccan names first.^[2] Nascentes's short dictionary calls it of Eastern, perhaps Moluccan, origin, and Wiktionary says only that it may be from Arabic or from a native name for the bird.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 14th century, from Cunha's slips of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The first quotation Dalgado gives is from the Peregrinação of Fernão Pinto, which he dates 1541: a market with heaps of hams, ducks, cranes, bustards, emas and deer.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The early texts use the word for large flightless birds of the Old World: in 1609 João dos Santos writes of the great birds called emas of an Ethiopian desert, whose stomachs are hot enough to grind stones and iron.^[9] Barbosa (1611) and Pereira (1697) translate it with the Latin words for the ostrich.^[11][12] Bluteau reports a debate of 1696 in the academy of the Count of Ericeira over whether the ema and the ostrich (abestruz) were the same bird.^[13] Vieira still describes the cassowary under the word.^[4]

In Brazil the name passed to the rhea, the large running bird of the campos, which is its main sense today; the Aulete notes that calling the ostrich ema is improper.^[2][14] In the north and north-east of Brazil it also means drunkenness, and montado na ema “riding the rhea” means drunk;^[2][15] Houaiss thinks this comes from the drunkard's sway, like the bird's gait.^[2][15] The rhea is also a character of the bumba meu boi folk dance.^[3][16]

Etymonline takes the English word emu (1610s) as probably from the Portuguese word, and Wiktionary lists French émeu, Spanish emú and Catalan emú among its descendants.^[17][1]

Timeline

• 1300s – first record, in Cunha's medieval slips.^[2]
• 1541 – emas among the foods of a market in the Peregrinação.^[9]
• 1609 – João dos Santos describes the emas of an Ethiopian desert.^[9]
• 1610s – English emu, probably from the Portuguese word.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses ema with Latin strutiocamelus “ostrich”.^[11]
• 1696 – an academic debate on whether the ema is the ostrich, reported by Bluteau.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais describes a large tall grey bird with black wing feathers.^[18]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives the word from Arabic.^[4]
• 1919 – Dalgado proposes the Moluccan origin.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The greater rhea (Rhea americana), a large flightless running bird of the open country of South America, the largest bird of Brazil; also called nhandu.^[2][3][16]
2. Improperly, the ostrich.^[14][3]
3. (Brazil, north and north-east) drunkenness;^[2][15] montado na ema “drunk”.^[2][15]
4. (Brazil, folklore) The rhea as a character of the bumba meu boi dance.^[3][16]

Related words

• English emu

Usage notes

Houaiss records a second ema, of obscure origin, used in the north and north-east of Brazil for a piece of chewing tobacco;^[2][3][15] Aurélio and Navarro put this sense and “drunkenness” under that word.^[2][3][15]

In Rio Grande do Sul the rhea is commonly called avestruz, and on the border with Uruguay and Argentina also nhandu.^[19][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ema
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ema
4. ^ a b c Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 42
5. ^ 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. ema
6. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3395
7. ^ 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. ema
8. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 169
9. ^ a b c d e f Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 1, 376
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ema
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ema
12. ^ 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. ema
13. ^ 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. ema
14. ^ a b 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. ema
15. ^ a b c d e f Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. ema
16. ^ a b c 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. ema
17. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. emu
18. ^ 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, 466
19. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. ema