jejum

Forms

jejum m (plural jejuns)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote jajũu, jaiuũ, jagũu, geguus and other forms.^[2] Houaiss dates jejum to the 15th century, and Cunha the modern spelling to the 16th.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin iēiūnus (“fasting, hungry”), in its Vulgar Latin form jājūnus, an adjective used as a noun.^[3][4][5][2] The oldest Galician-Portuguese form is Old Galician-Portuguese jajũu.^[1][5] Houaiss notes that the old language still had Old Galician-Portuguese jejum as an adjective in the 14th century, and a noun Old Galician-Portuguese jajunho, which continues Latin iēiūnium (“fast”).^[3] Wiktionary derives the noun from that Latin noun.^[1] Nascentes, after Júlio Moreira, argues that the Latin noun would have given a form in ⟨-nho⟩, as Iūnius gave junho, and so the modern word must come from the adjective.^[6]

The Latin adjective is also the source of Galician xaxún, Spanish ayuno, French jeûne, Italian digiuno and Occitan jejun.^[7][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *jagjūno- and the adjective Proto-Indo-European *Hieh₂ǵ-iu-, from the verb *Hieh₂ǵ-ie/o- (“to sacrifice”).^[8] The learned jejuno, the part of the small intestine, is from the same Latin adjective.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria already have the noun in a list of devotions: por creenças, por jajũus, por rogos “by beliefs, by fasts, by prayers”.^[5] The Miragres de Santiago speak of forgiveness por lagremas et por jajũus “through tears and fasts”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word belongs to religious practice, and the Crónica Geral has the phrase estar en jaiuũ “to be fasting”.^[5] The CTA corpus shows the spellings jejũu (1438), jaiũũ (1475) and jejum in the 15th and 16th centuries.^[10][11] Bluteau's book of synonyms praises it with a long string of epithets: Freyo da gula “bridle of gluttony”, Porta do Parayzo “gate of Paradise”.^[12]

Beside the religious and medical fast, Houaiss gives the state of someone who has not eaten since the day before, the figurative sense of any abstinence, and the informal “complete ignorance of a subject”.^[3] The phrase quebrar o jejum “to break one's fast” also means, in the south of Brazil, to get something one has long gone without.^[3][13] The word passed into Kabuverdianu as djudjum and into Tetum as jejún.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – jajũus in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[5][3]
• 14th century – iaiuu, geguus and the noun jajunho.^[3]
• 1438 – jejũu in the Vida de Santa Eufrosina.^[10]
• 15th century – the spelling jejum.^[3]
• 1697 – Pereira renders Jejum with Latin jejunium.^[14]
• 1755 – Folqman lists Jejum and the phrase em jejum.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. Fasting: going without food, wholly or partly, for a time, by choice or not: um jejum de doze horas.^[3][1][16]
2. (religion) A fast kept as penance on set days; in the Catholic Church, one full meal a day without meat in certain seasons.^[3][17]
3. The state of someone who has not eaten since the day before: fazer a análise em jejum.^[3][18]
4. (figurative) abstinence, deprivation of anything: um longo jejum de vitórias.^[3][19]
5. (informal) Complete ignorance of a subject.^[3][18]

Word family

• desjejum

Related words

• jejuar
• jejuno
• jejuador
• Latin iēiūnus
• Spanish ayuno

Usage notes

Quebrar o jejum is to eat the first meal of the day, or to eat before a fast is over.^[3][18] The noun desjejum “breakfast” is formed on it.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. jejum
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. jejum
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. jejum
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. jaiuũ
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. 284
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4582
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. jejum
10. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. jejũu
11. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. jaiũũ
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. jejum
13. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. jejum
14. ^ 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. jejum
15. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. jejum
16. ^ 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. jejum
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. jejum
18. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. jejum
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5471
20. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. desjejum