sabugo

Forms

sabugo m (plural sabugos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sabūcus (“elder tree”), a variant of sambūcus.^[2][3][4][1] Cortesão derived it either from the form with /mb/, with assimilation of the labials, or from the form without it.^[5] Cornu found it odd that the intervocalic /b/ was kept, and Nunes saw learned influence in it or a confusion of ⟨b⟩ with ⟨v⟩.^[5]

The same Latin word is Galician sabugo, Spanish saúco, Catalan saüc, Italian sambuco and Romanian soc.^[6][1] The Spanish word was first written Old Spanish sabuco, in 1242, and shows the influence of the suffix -uccus.^[7] The word French sureau is a derivative of Old French seü.^[5][1]

The OLD calls the Latin word of unknown origin.^[8] Wiktionary connects the variant with /mb/ with sambūca (“a stringed instrument”), from Ancient Greek σαμβύκη (sambúkē), since a wind instrument was made of elder wood.^[1]

For the sense “corncob” Nei Lopes proposed Kongo sabuku (“stopper, plug”), since rural people used cobs as stoppers.^[2] Houaiss rejects this, because Morais records that sense in 1789 without any African connection and the idea of “inner part” is in the word from the 14th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first senses recorded, in the 14th century, are the soft part of the finger under the nail and the pith of plants.^[2] Houaiss dates the elder tree itself to the 15th century, the base of an animal's tail to 1673, the soft inner part of horns to 1720 and the corncob to 1789.^[2] Folqman (1755) gives sabugo or sabugueiro for the tree and sabugo do corpo for the core of a horn.^[9] Morais (1789) lists the tree, the core of an ox horn, the part of a horse's tail where the hairs grow and the part of the maize ear in which the grains sit.^[10] The tree came to be called sabugueiro, first recorded in 1813.^[3]

In Brazil the corncob is the commonest sense, and in Rio Grande do Sul não valer um sabugo means to be worth nothing.^[11][12][2]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, for the nail bed and the pith of plants.^[2][3]
• 15th century – first record of the sense “elder tree”.^[2]
• 1496 – sabugo in the Regimento proveitoso contra a pestenença.^[13]
• 1673 – first record of the sense “base of an animal's tail”.^[2]
• 1720 – first record of the sense “inner part of a horn”.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais records the sense “corncob”.^[10][2]
• 1813 – first record of sabugueiro.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The part of the finger in which the nail is set; the nail bed.^[2][14][1]
2. The solid base of an animal's tail (cauda), from which the hairs grow.^[2][15]
3. The soft inner part of an animal's horns (chifres).^[2][16][1]
4. A corncob, an ear of maize stripped of its grains.^[2][14][1]
5. The light, spongy pith of the stems and branches of certain trees, especially the elder.^[2][16]
6. The elder tree, sabugueiro (Sambucus nigra).^[2][17][1]
7. (Minas Gerais) A climbing cactus (Cereus melanurus).^[2]
8. (printing) The central shaft of a printing roller.^[2][14]

Word family

• sabugueiro
• sabugal

Related words

• Galician sabugo
• Spanish saúco
• Latin sambūcus

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 q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sabugo
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sabugo
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sabugo
5. ^ 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. 452
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7561
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 176
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sabugo
10. ^ 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, 363
11. ^ 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. sabugo
12. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. sabugo
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. sabugo
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sabugo
15. ^ 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. sabugo
16. ^ 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. sabugo
17. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8218