flamengo

flamengo¹ Flemish

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /flaˈmẽ.ɡu/^[1]
• Portugal: /flɐˈmẽ.ɡu/^[1]

Forms

flamengo (feminine flamenga, masculine plural flamengos, feminine plural flamengas)^[1] The old form was framengo, with fl- turned into fr-;^[2][3][4] Cunha dates it to the 15th century and flamengo to the 18th.^[5][6] Cardoso (1569) and Pereira (1697) head the word Framengo, and Feijó (1734) prefers flamengo as the more proper spelling.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The word for Flemish is borrowed from Medieval Latin flamengus, derived from Dutch flaming (“native of Flanders”).^[5][6][7] Wiktionary calls it a semi-learned borrowing of flamencus and traces it to Old Dutch flāmisk, the ancestor of Dutch Vlaams, from Proto-Germanic *flaumaz with the suffix *-iskaz.^[1] Nascentes takes it from the Germanic word, after Diez and the REW, and notes that Cortesão and Figueiredo started from a Low Latin form of the same word.^[8] Figueiredo's dictionary of 1899 derives it from French flamand, which goes back to Old French flameng, recorded in 1080.^[9][10] The Spanish word, Spanish flamenco, is likewise from the Dutch one.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines Flamengo, ou Framengo as a native of Flanders and records lingoa Flamenga for the language.^[13] Morais (1789) adds queijo flamengo, a common round cheese.^[14] The language sense survives as the name of the Dutch dialects of Belgium and the region of Dunkirk.^[5][7][15] European dictionaries keep the sayings não conhecer flamengos à meia-noite, said of pretending not to know someone one does not want to put up with, and ver flamengos à meia-noite, to be at a loss.^[16][15]

Timeline

• 15th century – framengo, the old form.^[6][5]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders Framengo by Latin Flander.^[2]
• 1656 – framengo in a private letter.^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau has Flamengo, ou Framengo and lingoa Flamenga.^[13]
• 1734 – Feijó prefers flamengo to framengo.^[4]
• 1789 – Morais records queijo flamengo.^[14]
• 18th century – Cunha's date for the spelling flamengo.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to Flandres or its people; flandrense.^[5][7][15]
2. Of the Flemish language.^[15][1]
3. queijo flamengo: a round cheese of cow's milk, of Dutch origin.^[16][15]

Noun

1. A native or inhabitant of Flanders, a Fleming.^[5][7][15]
2. (linguistics) Flemish, the Dutch dialects spoken in Belgium and around Dunkirk.^[5][7][15]

flamengo² flamingo

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /flaˈmẽ.ɡu/^[1]
• Portugal: /flɐˈmẽ.ɡu/^[1]

Forms

flamengo m (plural flamengos)^[1] Old forms are framengo (15th century) and faramengo (1575); the modern flamingo is a later loan.^[5][6]

Etymology

The word for the flamingo is, according to Cunha and Houaiss, borrowed from Old Occitan flamenc (“flame-coloured, bright”), the name of the bird in Provençal, from Latin flamma (“flame”).^[5][6][1] The old variant faramengo was influenced by the ethnic name flamengo¹.^[5][6] Corominas sees no good reason to separate the bird's name from the adjective of Flanders: he rejects the explanation from the Latin word for flame, accepted by Wartburg and Bloch, and explains Spanish flamenco, the Spanish name, as an application of the Flemish name, recorded for the bird about 1330.^[11][18] Etymonline derives the English word flamingo from the Portuguese word and Spanish flamengo, from the Provençal name formed from flama with a Germanic suffix, perhaps adapted to the words for a Fleming.^[19] The modern Portuguese flamingo was borrowed back from English.^[6][20]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) describes the bird, with its long neck and legs and red wings and feet, and offers both explanations of the name: the flame colour of its wings and feet, or that the first ones came from Flanders.^[13] In Rio de Janeiro the name is also given to another bird, the polícia-inglesa (Leistes superciliaris).^[5] Figueiredo (1899) records a kind of falcon so called.^[21] Today flamingo is the usual name of the bird and flamengo a variant of it.^[7][22]

Timeline

• 15th century – framengo, the bird.^[5]
• 1575 – the variant faramengo.^[5][6]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau explains the name by the bird's colour or by Flanders.^[13]
• 1815 – first record of flamingo, from English.^[20]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records flamengo for a kind of falcon.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. (ornithology) A flamingo, a long-legged wading bird with pink plumage.^[5][7][22]
2. (Rio de Janeiro) The white-browed blackbird, polícia-inglesa.^[5]