rabo

Forms

rabo m (plural rabos)^[1] Houaiss records the spelling rrabo in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rāpum (“turnip”), written Old Galician-Portuguese rabo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] Corominas explains the change of meaning by comparing the turnip, pulled up with its tuft of leaves at one end, with a tail ending in a brush of hair;^[5][6] Nascentes follows him, and Corominas adds that other languages name the tail with similar images.^[5][6] For Corominas the word first named the fleshy dock of the tail, as against the hair.^[5] In his larger dictionary Nascentes still found the semantic step unexplained, and Corominas himself calls the Latin origin probable.^[7][8]

The tail sense is shared with Galician rabo and Spanish rabo, first recorded in Berceo.^[8][1] Elsewhere the Latin word kept the plant's name, as in Italian rapa and French rave “turnip”.^[1][9]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *rāpo- and is cognate with Ancient Greek ῥάπυς (rhápus, “turnip”), Lithuanian rópė and Old High German ruoba.^[10] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *(s)rā́ps.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1188–1230, following Machado.^[2] Cunha dates it to the 13th century.^[3] In the satirical cantigas of that century Afonso X has a wretch cook meio rabo de carneiro “half a ram's tail”, and Afonso Mendez de Besteiros says of a man that alçou rab' e foi sa via a Portugal “he raised his tail and went off to Portugal”.^[11] The Crónica Troiana has non dauan por uos mays que por lo rabo de hun can “they cared no more for you than for a dog's tail”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Pereira (1697) renders the word both as Latin cauda and as penis.^[12] Bluteau describes the tail of four-footed animals, of bone covered with hair, of birds, of feathers, and of fish, of cartilage.^[13] Morais (1789) adds the train of a dress.^[14] Silva Bastos (1912) labels the sense “buttocks” as vulgar and lists plant and grape names such as rabo de asno and rabo de gato.^[15]

Transferred senses include the rear part of any object, the handle of a tool in Portugal, the tails of a frock coat in Brazil, and the lower stretch of a waterfall.^[2][16] Houaiss labels as taboo the senses “anus” and, in Portugal, “homosexual man”.^[2] The word was borrowed into Saramaccan as lábu.^[1]

Timeline

• 1188–1230 – Houaiss's first date, after Machado.^[2]
• 13th century – the cantigas d'escarnho use the word for animal tails.^[11][3]
• 15th century – the spelling rrabo;^[17] rabear “to wag the tail” is also first recorded.^[2][3]
• 1525 – rabo in the Memorial da Infanta Santa Joana.^[17]
• 1697 – Pereira renders it as Latin cauda and penis.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais adds the train of a dress.^[14]
• 1813 – rabanada “a blow with the tail”.^[3]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos labels the sense “buttocks” vulgar.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (informal) tail: the extension of the spine of many animals, and the tail feathers of a bird; a more popular word than cauda.^[2][16][1]
2. The rear part or extension of an object: o rabo do avião.^[2][18]
3. (Portugal) The handle of a tool or utensil.^[2][19]
4. (Brazil, informal) The tails of a frock coat or tailcoat.^[2][16]
5. The train of a dress.^[2]
6. (Brazil) The lower part of a waterfall, below a long stretch without falls.^[2][16]
7. (vulgar) The buttocks; the anus.^[2][20][1]
8. (Portugal, taboo) A homosexual man.^[2]

Word family

• rabada
• rabadilha
• rabear
• rabiça
• rabicho
• rabudo
• rabilongo
• rabicurto
• enrabichar

Related words

• enrabadela
• enrabar
• rabadela
• rabeira
• rabelo
• rabiosque
• rabiote
• raposa
• cauda
• Latin rāpum
• Galician rabo

Usage notes

Common phrases include meter o rabo entre as pernas “to keep quiet, cowed or guilty”, olhar com o rabo do olho “to look askance” and, in Brazil, ter o rabo preso “to have something to hide”.^[2][21] Fugir com o rabo à seringa means to dodge a promise or a responsibility.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. rabo
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. rabo
4. ^ 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. rabo
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rabo
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. rabo
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 430
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 744
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. rave
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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. rabo
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. rabo
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rabo
14. ^ 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, 280
15. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. rabo
16. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. rabo
17. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. rabo
18. ^ 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. rabo
19. ^ 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. rabo
20. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. rabo
21. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. rabo