nabo

Forms

nabo m (plural nabos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nāpus (“turnip”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nabo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician nabo, Spanish nabo, Catalan nap, Italian napo, Romanian nap and Old French nef; French navet is formed from the Old French word with the suffix -et.^[5][6][7]

The OLD and Wiktionary take the Latin word as an adaptation of Ancient Greek νᾶπυ (nâpu, “mustard”).^[8][1] The DHLF finds a Greek source unlikely because the meanings are far apart, and treats it as a Mediterranean word of obscure origin that recalls rāpum (“turnip”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology has the word in a Galician charter of 1257, de uerzas d' urto et de nabos “of garden cabbages and of turnips”, and in 1333 hua cesta de nabos “a basket of turnips”.^[9] Houaiss and Cunha also date it to the 13th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) records the diminutive nabinho and nabal “turnip field”.^[10] Bluteau calls it a well-known vegetable, mentions a wild turnip, and quotes the sayings mão de nabo, molho de bredos and comprar nabos em saco, said of someone who buys without seeing what he buys.^[11] Morais (1813) adds a nautical sense, a round, bored piece of wood in a ship's pump.^[12]

The old Aulete has the jocular “dull, stupid person” and, in Brazil, the vulgar “penis”.^[13] In southern Brazil it is also the part of a post or stake that is buried in the ground, and in Portugal a regional word for drunkenness.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Timeline

• 1257 – nabos in a Galician charter.^[9]
• 1333 – hua cesta de nabos.^[9]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders nabo by Latin rapum.^[18]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists nabinho and nabal.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau quotes comprar nabos em saco.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais records the pump piston; first record of nabiça.^[12][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The turnip (Brassica rapa), an annual or biennial plant of the cabbage family grown for food and fodder.^[2][14][1]
2. The fleshy root of this plant, eaten raw or cooked: sopa de nabos.^[2][14]
3. (informal, derogatory) A dull or clumsy person; an idiot.^{[13][16][19][1]}
4. (vulgar) The penis.^[14][16]
5. (nautical) The rough piston of a ship's pump.^[20][17]
6. (southern Brazil) The part of a post or stake that is buried in the ground.^[14][15]
7. (Portugal, regional) drunkenness.^[16][17]

Word family

• nabiça
• nabal

Related words

• napiforme
• napelo
• Latin nāpus
• Galician nabo

Usage notes

Comprar nabos em saco means to buy or accept something without examining it, and tirar nabos da púcara to question someone cleverly to find something out.^[14][16]

Nascentes reports that Wiener, finding nabi in Chanca's famous letter of 1494, took it for a Wolof word nyambi, and that Fernando Ortiz rightly rejected this African origin.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. nabo
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. nabo
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. nabo
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5821
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. navet
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. napus
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. nāpus
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. nabo
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. nabo
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. nabo
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 332
13. ^ 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. nabo
14. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. nabo
15. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. 2, s.v. nabo
16. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. nabo
17. ^ 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. nabo
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. nabo
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6409
20. ^ 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. nabo
21. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 348