enxame

Forms

enxame m (plural enxames)^[1] The oldest texts write eixame and eyxame, and enxame and exame appear in the 15th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin exāmen (“swarm of bees”), written Old Galician-Portuguese eixame in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin noun comes from exigō (“to drive out”).^[4][1]

Houaiss explains the nasal first syllable: in medieval Portuguese words in ⟨ex-⟩ that had become ⟨eix-⟩, and words in ⟨ens-⟩, all came to begin with ⟨enx-⟩, as in enxaguar and enxertar.^[2] Nascentes puts the ⟨n⟩ down to the language's dislike of a bare initial ⟨e⟩, and cites García de Diego's view that the prefix en- drew it in.^[5] The learned doublet is exame.^[2][1]

The same Latin word is Galician enxame, Spanish enjambre, Catalan eixam, French essaim and Italian sciame.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cantiga 211 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria tells of people who viron un eixame vĩir voando / d'abellas mui brancas “saw a swarm of very white bees come flying”.^[7] The Fuero Real in its Portuguese version speaks of bees that swarm up into a tree and façan eyxame “make a swarm” there.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) defines the word as the bees of one hive and gives the figurative “multitude”, quoting enxames de Mouros “swarms of Moors”.^[8] The figurative sense, a great number of people, animals or things, is now common.^[2][9] Astronomy uses enxame de meteoros for a meteor shower and enxame de cometas for a group of comets with nearly the same orbit.^[2][10] Among the street gangs of Fortaleza, fazer enxame means to go out in a band to rob or intimidate.^[11]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria have eixame.^[7][3]
• 15th century – the spellings enxame and exame.^[2]
• 16th century – first record of the verb enxamear.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses enxame with the Latin examen.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais gives the figurative sense “multitude”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A swarm of bees that leave the hive with their queen to settle elsewhere.^[2][13][1]
2. The bees of one hive.^[2][14]
3. A great number of flying insects or other animals.^[2][13]
4. (figurative) A great number of people or things; a crowd, multidão.^[2][14]
5. (astronomy) A meteor shower.^[2]

Word family

• enxamear

Related words

• exame
• Latin exāmen
• Galician enxame
• Spanish enjambre

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. enxame
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. enxame
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. exāmen
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. enxame
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2936
7. ^ a b c 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. eixame
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, 19
9. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. enxame
10. ^ 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. enxame
11. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. enxame
12. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. enxame
13. ^ a b 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. enxame
14. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. enxame