pombo

Forms

pombo m (plural pombos, feminine pomba, feminine plural pombas)^[1] Houaiss records ponbo and poõbos in the 15th century.^[2] The feminine appears as poomba and paonbas in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin palumbus (“wood pigeon”), through Old Galician-Portuguese *poombo.^[2][1][5] Nascentes traces the change through *paombo, with the loss of ⟨l⟩ between vowels and then the first vowel assimilated to the second.^[5][6] The classical noun was palumbēs;^[7][6] the form in -us is found from Cato and Varro, and the Appendix Probi corrects it to the classical form.^[7][6]

The same Latin word is Galician pombo, Spanish palomo, Catalan paloma, Italian palombo and Romanian porumb.^[8][9][1] Latin distinguished columba (“pigeon”) from the word for the wood pigeon;^[10] Corominas notes that the distinction survives in Occitan, while Spanish and Portuguese kept only the word for the wild bird.^[10]

De Vaan finds it conceivable that the bird was named for its grey colour, comparing Ancient Greek πέλεια (péleia, “wild pigeon”) and the root of palleō (“to be pale”), but calls this uncertain;^[7][1] Wiktionary gives Proto-Indo-European *pal-wo (“dark-coloured, grey”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo found no early record of the masculine, only of the feminine: era come de poomba “it was like a dove's” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, and ponbo and poõbo beside ponbas de ponbal “dovecote pigeons” in the text of Pero Menino.^[3] Houaiss dates the masculine to the 15th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso glossed the word with Latin columbus, and the 18th-century dictionaries separate the domestic pigeon from the pombo bravo “wild pigeon”, Latin palumbes.^[11][12] Morais describes pombos torcazes, wood pigeons with a coloured collar.^[13] Houaiss notes that the pigeon was brought to Brazil in the 16th century.^[2]

Brazil made the word an adjective for a white horse, recorded by Houaiss before 1635.^[2][14] Regional senses are a parcel of excrement thrown into the street in Ceará, a lie in the Portuguese Beira, and in Mozambique adultery and the compensation the adulterer pays to the husband.^[2][15][16]

Timeline

• 13th century – the feminine poomba in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][4]
• 15th century – the masculine, spelt ponbo and poõbos.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Pombo with Latin columbus.^[11]
• before 1635 – the Brazilian adjective “white (of a horse)”.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira gives Latin columbus and palumbes.^[17]
• 1755 – Folqman separates the domestic pigeon from the pombo brabo.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais describes the pombos torcazes.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. pigeon, dove, especially the rock dove (Columba livia); the male of the pomba.^[2][18][1]
2. (Ceará, informal) A parcel of excrement thrown into the street; also pombo sem asa.^[2][16]
3. (Portugal, informal) A lie, a fib.^[2][15]
4. (Mozambique) adultery; the compensation an adulterer pays to the wronged husband.^[15]

Adjective

1. (Brazil) White, of a horse.^[2][18][14]
2. Greyish in colour.^[19]

Word family

• pombal
• empombar

Related words

• pomba
• Latin palumbus
• Galician pombo
• Spanish palomo

Usage notes

Houaiss and Cunha also record pombo “open-air market”, first found in 1540 (spelt pubo or pũbo) and used originally in Angola, from Kimbundu pumbo; its derivative pombeiro was a travelling trader of the backlands.^[2][20] Houaiss has a further pombo, a 20th-century name for the cigar in Afro-Brazilian ceremonies in Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro, of disputed origin: Kimbundu pumbo “swelling”, Umbundu pomo “thickness”, or perhaps the bird's name.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. pombo
3. ^ 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. poomba
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pomba
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pombo
6. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. pombo
7. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6181
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. palumbus
10. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 357
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pombo
12. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pombo
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 466
14. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. pombo
15. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pombo
16. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. pombo
17. ^ 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. pombo
18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pombo
19. ^ 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. pombo
20. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pombo