jugo

Forms

jugo m (plural jugos)^[1] Houaiss records jugo and iogo in the 14th century and juguo in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin iugum (“yoke”), written Old Galician-Portuguese jugo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Wiktionary attributes the preservation of the /u/ to metaphony.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician xugo, Spanish yugo, Catalan jou, French joug, Italian giogo and Romanian jug.^[4][5][1]

The Latin noun is from Proto-Italic *jugom and Proto-Indo-European *yugóm, from *yewg- (“to yoke, join”); it is cognate with Sanskrit युग (yuga), Ancient Greek ζυγόν (zugón) and Gothic 𐌾𐌿𐌺 (juk).^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Galician pages of the Historia Troyana have the word for an ox yoke: desi tomou o jugo que tragia, et poso lle lo ẽnas cabeças “then he took the yoke he was carrying and set it on their heads”.^[7] Houaiss and Cunha date the vernacular word to the 14th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Beside the wooden yoke for oxen and, by extension, a pair of oxen, Portuguese took over the Latin figurative senses “subjection, oppression”.^[3][2] Feijó (1734) notes that the word stands for subjection, Folqman (1755) gives the phrase sacudir o jugo da escravidão “to shake off the yoke of slavery”, and Morais (1789) adds the Roman yoke of spears under which the defeated were made to pass.^[8][9][10] Later dictionaries record technical senses in building, zoology and botany.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1102 – a Latin charter writes iujo.^[2]
• 14th century – jugo and iogo in Galician-Portuguese.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) uses the word.^[12]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as the bar laid across a pair of oxen to draw the cart or plough.^[13]
• 1755 – Folqman records sacudir o jugo da escravidão.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais adds the Roman yoke of the vanquished.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A yoke: the wooden piece fitted to the heads or necks of oxen to hitch them to a cart or plough; canga.^[2][14][1]
2. (by extension) A pair of oxen.^[2][11]
3. (history) The frame of spears under which the Romans made defeated enemies pass.^[15][16]
4. (figurative) subjection imposed by force or authority; oppression: viveram décadas sob o jugo estrangeiro.^[2][11][1]
5. (figurative) A bond of submission and obedience arising from an obligation or convention.^[2][11]
6. (Portugal) In some houses, a timber laid on the beams to carry the joists.^[2]
7. (zoology) A small lobe on the rear edge of the forewings of certain moths and caddis flies.^[2][11]
8. (botany) A pair of opposite leaflets of a compound leaf.^[2][11]

Word family

• jugada
• jugadeiro

Related words

• conjugar
• jugular
• subjugar
• Latin iugum
• Spanish yugo

Usage notes

Houaiss, the DLP and Michaelis record a separate noun jugo from Latin jugulum, the slaughter of cattle by severing the spinal cord, the act of jugar.^[2][14][17] The REW and García de Diego also list a Portuguese jugo “throat, jugular vein” from the same Latin word.^[18][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. jugo
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. jugo
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4610
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. jugum
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. iugum
7. ^ 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. jugo
8. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. jugo
9. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. jugo
10. ^ 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, 746
11. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. jugo
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. jugo
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. jugo
14. ^ 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. jugo
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. jugo
16. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5498
17. ^ 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. jugo
18. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4609
19. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. jugulum