machete

Forms

machete m (plural machetes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish machete,^[2][1][3][4] a word first recorded in Spanish in a document of 1550.^[5][6] Corominas takes it for a derivative of macho (“large hammer for forging iron”), so that its first sense would have been “axe”, still kept by macheta in the Leonese provinces.^[5][2] That noun is of uncertain origin, probably a Mozarabic variant of mazo (“mallet”).^[7][8]

Corominas doubts the derivation from Latin marculus (“small hammer”) that has been repeated since Diez.^[7] Earlier Portuguese scholars had other views: Adolfo Coelho derived the word from macho with a suffix, and Silva Bastos from the stem of machado.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bluteau's dictionary, in the volume of 1716, gives two senses: a short sword with an edge on one side and a back on the other almost to the point, and a small viola.^[11][2]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) keeps both senses, the short sword and the small viola, and adds descante, a popular song.^[12] The old Caldas Aulete describes the weapon as the straight, short, two-edged sabre of the artillerymen, and adds the bush knife.^[13]

In Spanish America the word named the heavy knife used to clear a path through the forest; the verb machetar and the noun macheteros arose there, and Friederici quotes them from about 1565.^[14] The DLP describes the knife as used to open a way through the forests of Africa and South America.^[4]

As a musical instrument the machete is a small guitar of Portuguese origin, larger than the cavaquinho and smaller than the viola; in Brazil it is played in the rural cururu and, in Bahia, in the samba de roda of the Recôncavo.^[2][15][16] In Portugal, machete de Braga is another name for the cavaquinho.^[2][17]

Timeline

• 1550 – first record of the Spanish word.^[5]
• c. 1565 – Aguado's chronicle of Venezuela has soldiers carrying machetes to open the way.^[14]
• 1716 – Bluteau records the sword and the small viola.^[11][2]
• 1789 – Morais adds the sense “popular song”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A short, straight, two-edged sabre, formerly used by artillerymen.^[2][17]
2. A large bush knife, a machete; a facão.^[2][18][1]
3. (music) A small Portuguese guitar with four or five double strings, larger than the cavaquinho and smaller than the viola.^[2][15]
4. (music, Portugal) The cavaquinho, also called machete de Braga.^[2][17]
5. (music) A popular song in which two or more singers answer and challenge each other in turn; a descante.^[2][4]

Word family

• machetinho

Related words

• Spanish machete
• Spanish macho

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. machete
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. machete
4. ^ a b c 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. machete
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 746
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. machete
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 748
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. macho
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 308
10. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. machete
11. ^ 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. machete
12. ^ 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. 2, 40
13. ^ 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. machete
14. ^ a b Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 362
15. ^ a b 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. machete
16. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. machete
17. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. machete
18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5814