mungir

Forms

mungir (first-person singular present munjo, first-person singular preterite mungi, past participle mungido)^[1] Houaiss records monger in the 13th century and mungir and mugia in the 14th.^[2] Cunha gives moger for the 13th century.^[2][3] Wiktionary lists the variants munger, monger, moiger, moger, muguir, megir and mugir.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *mulgiō, a fourth-conjugation remake of Latin mulgeō (“to milk”).^[2][3][4][5] Cunha and Nascentes place a stage Old Galician-Portuguese *muigir between the two, with the /l/ vocalised before the consonant.^[3][4] Nascentes explains the later /n/ as the nasality of the initial /m/ spreading into the syllable.^[4] Wiktionary instead starts from a Vulgar Latin form that already had the nasal, *mungō.^[1]

The same Latin verb is Italian mungere, Catalan munyir, Romanian mulge and Old French moudre; the REW and García de Diego also give moger for Galicia and the Minho.^[6][7]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *molgeje- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ- (“to milk”), also the source of ἀμέλγω (amélgō), melchan and melcan.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (no. 52), about wild goats that came to a monastery ta que os monges las yan monger “until the monks went to milk them”; the DDGM's glossary reads monger, Lorenzo's chronology moger.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept the sense “to milk” since the cantigas.^[2][9] Barbosa (1611) and Pereira (1697) give it with ordenhar as its synonym, and Morais (1789) warns against the form mugir, which is the verb for lowing.^[11][12][13] The figurative senses “to squeeze” and “to exploit, fleece” are in the original Caldas Aulete.^[14] Dialect surveys of Portugal record it as a word for milking.^[15]

Timeline

• 13th century – monger in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[9][2]
• 14th century – the forms mungir and mugia.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders mungir by Latin mulgeo.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds vaso em que se munge o leyte “vessel into which milk is drawn”.^[11]
• 1697 – Pereira: Mungir, ou ordenhar.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais rejects the spelling mugir for this verb.^[13]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives it from Latin mulgere.^[17]

Meanings

Verb

1. To milk (an animal), drawing the milk from its teats; ordenhar: Ela mungia as ovelhas ao nascer do sol.^[2][18][1]
2. (figurative) To squeeze something out of; to press.^[2][5]
3. (figurative) To exploit, to fleece (someone).^[18][19][1]

Related words

• Latin mulgeo
• Italian mungere

Usage notes

Aulete and Aurélio warn against confusing the verb with mugir “to low, moo”, which shares several of its forms.^[14][5] Aurélio also lists mugir as a variant of mungir.^[5]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mungir
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. mungir
4. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. mungir
5. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mungir
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. mulgere
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. ^ 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. monger
10. ^ 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. moger
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mungir
12. ^ a b 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. mungir
13. ^ 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, 104
14. ^ a b 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. mungir
15. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. mungir
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mungir
17. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 360
18. ^ 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. mungir
19. ^ 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. mungir