samba

Forms

samba m (plural sambas)^[1] Houaiss records the variant semba in 1880.^[2]

Etymology

It is a word of Bantu origin, but its exact source is disputed.^[2][1] For Nascentes, the Academia's DLP, Michaelis and the first edition of Aurélio it is borrowed from Kimbundu semba (“a bump of the navels (umbigada)”), the move in which one dancer touches another with the belly to call them into the ring.^[3][4][5][6] The digital Aurélio adds that this Kimbundu word may come from samba (“to be lively, excited”), or from samba (“to jump for joy”) of Luba and other Bantu languages.^[7] Wiktionary considers it probably Bantu, perhaps from semba (“belly-bump”), the name of a dance.^[1] Cunha says only that it is probably African.^[8]

Houaiss sets out the competing proposals.^[2] Ramos took Kimbundu samba (“umbigada; a dance step like the batuque”) as the source, a dance he said existed in Luanda.^[2] Nei Lopes offered either Chokwe samba (“to caper, frolic like a young goat”) or Kikongo samba (“a dance in which one dancer strikes his chest against another's”).^[2] Lopes also pointed to Umbundu semba (“a dance in which two dancers part and meet in the middle”), from a root meaning “to separate”, which gave the widespread disemba (“umbigada”), plural masemba.^[2] Since the umbigada belongs to the oldest forms of the samba in Brazil, he concluded that this Umbundu root is the remote source.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1842, and Cunha's first record is of 1890.^[2][8] The first sense is that of a ring dance of African origin related to the batuque, with solo dancers and often the umbigada, a sense Houaiss labels as Brazilian.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the dance the word passed to any popular ball, urban or rural, where the samba is the main music, and to the music itself: Houaiss places the song genre, usually in 2/4 time, from the beginning of the 20th century.^[2][9] Navarro's dictionary of north-eastern Brazil quotes a passage that places the birth of the samba, under that name, in the batuques of Bahia, where it was still danced in its older form.^[10] In the north and north-east it also names a kind of xiba, a rural stamping dance, and in popular Brazilian speech it is a name for cane spirit, cachaça.^[2][7]

Many kinds of samba have their own names: Houaiss dates the samba de partido-alto, once a ring dance of the umbigada cycle among black Brazilians, to the 19th century, and the samba de breque, with sudden stops in which the singer adds spoken comments, to about 1936;^[2][7] Aurélio places the latter in Rio de Janeiro at the start of the 1930s.^[2][7] Michaelis notes that the samba became a ballroom dance known all over the world.^[5]

Timeline

• 1842 – first record, as Houaiss dates it.^[2]
• 1880 – the variant semba.^[2]
• 1890 – Cunha's first record.^[8]
• 19th century – samba de partido-alto.^[2]
• Early 20th century – the samba as a genre of popular song.^[2]
• c. 1936 – samba de breque.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Brazil, dance) A samba: a sung ring dance of African origin, in duple time with a syncopated accompaniment, with solo dancers and often the umbigada.^[2][8][7]
2. (music) The music of this dance; a genre of Brazilian popular song, usually in 2/4 time.^[2][7][4]
3. (Brazil) A popular ball where samba is the main music; an arrasta-pé.^[2][11]
4. (northern and north-eastern Brazil) A kind of xiba, a rural dance with stamping steps.^[2][7]
5. (Brazil, popular) Cane spirit, cachaça.^[2][11]

Word family

• sambar
• sambista
• samba-enredo

Related words

• batuque
• umbigada

Usage notes

Houaiss also has a separate, unrelated noun samba, masculine, an Angolan name for a group of flowering plants, the same as musamba.^[2]

Houaiss lists many set phrases, among them samba de roda, in which the dancers form a ring and each chooses a successor with an umbigada, samba de morro, the percussion-heavy samba of Rio that spread in the 1930s, and samba no pé, the samba danced with the traditional steps of the samba schools.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 t u v w x y Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. samba
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. samba
4. ^ 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. samba
5. ^ a b 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. samba
6. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 1289
7. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. samba
8. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. samba
9. ^ 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. samba
10. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. samba
11. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. samba