rumo

Forms

rumo m (plural rumos)^[1] Cunha records the 15th-century spelling rrumo.^[2] Houaiss has rumbo in 1665, and Bluteau heads the word “rumo, or rumbo”.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish rumbo, according to Houaiss, Cunha, Nascentes and the Aurélio.^[3][2][5][6] Nascentes explains the loss of /b/ as an assimilation of the two labials.^[5] Wiktionary instead refers it to the verb rumar, but Cunha dates the verb only to 1836.^[1][2]

The Spanish word is from Latin rhombus (“magic wheel; rhombus”), from Ancient Greek ῥόμβος (rhómbos, “spinning top, magic wheel”).^[3][7] It first named each of the 32 divisions of the compass rose, where the figure of a rhombus was drawn, and later, from 1535, the direction taken to reach a place.^[7] Corominas links it to the magic rhombus, which sailors would have associated with the pilot taking the height of the stars, and thinks the learned rombo was changed to the form with /u/ under the influence of a nautical term rumo (“space in a ship”), of Germanic origin.^[8][3] He notes that this nautical term is recorded in Portuguese.^[8]

Others derived the word from Germanic: Coelho from Dutch ruim (“space”), and Meyer-Lübke, as cited by Nascentes, from English rhumb.^[9] Silva Bastos also asked whether it came from English.^[10] Corominas rejects a Germanic origin, because neither the Dutch nor the Norse word ever meant a direction or a division of the compass.^[8] The Latin word lives on in Italian rombo, Catalan rumb and French rumb.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology quotes the Crónica de Ceuta: sem teer çerto rrumo per que faça sua uiagem “without a fixed course by which to make its voyage”.^[12] Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 15th century, in the nautical sense of a division of the compass rose and a course.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century João de Barros still used rumo for a point of the compass from which the wind blows, while Fernão Mendes Pinto already used it for the course of a ship.^[8][13] Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as the line on the compass rose or chart that shows one of the 32 winds a ship follows, with whole, half and quarter rumos.^[4] Caldas Aulete adds an old nautical measure of about five palms and the figurative senses “method, rule of conduct” and rumo de vida “way of life, trade”.^[14] In modern Portuguese it is above all any course or direction, as in rumo a “towards”.^[6][15]

The English word rhumb is recorded from 1578, and a writer of 1599 says it was taken from the Portuguese.^[8]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records, spelt rrumo.^[3][2]
• 1456 – pregos de rrumo “nails of rumo” for a caravel, in a document quoted by Lorenzo.^[12]
• 16th century – João de Barros and Fernão Mendes Pinto use it for a point of the compass and a ship's course.^[8]
• 1599 – an English writer says that rumb was taken from the Portuguese.^[8]
• 1665 – the spelling rumbo.^[3]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau heads the word rumo or rumbo and derives it from a Greek word for the pole of a cart.^[4]
• 1836 – first record of the verb rumar.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) Each of the 32 divisions of the compass rose (rosa-dos-ventos).^[3][6]
2. (nautical) The course of a ship; the angle between the direction of its bow and true north, magnetic north or the north of the compass.^[3][6]
3. A direction, course or way to a place: Seguiram o rumo do rio.^[3][6]
4. (figurative) A way of proceeding; method, rule of conduct: Ele não tem rumo na vida.^[3][16]
5. (nautical, historical) An old measure of about five palms (palmo).^[15][17]

Word family

• rumar

Related words

• rombo
• Spanish rumbo
• Latin rhombus

Usage notes

Rumo a means “towards”, sem rumo “aimlessly”, and rumo de vida “occupation, trade”.^[6][16] In São Paulo cortar no rumo de means “to head for”.^[3]

Lorenzo's 1456 record pregos de rrumo, for nails supplied to a caravel, is placed under this word in the DDGM.^[12] Corominas notes that a nautical rumo “space, hold of a ship” of Germanic origin is recorded in Portuguese.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. rumo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. rumo
4. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. rumo
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. rumo
6. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. rumo
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rumbo
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 83
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. 451
10. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. rumo
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7291
12. ^ 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. rumo
13. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 354
14. ^ 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. rumo
15. ^ 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. rumo
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. rumo
17. ^ 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. rumo