ubre

Forms

ubre m (plural ubres)^[1] Bluteau heads the word ubre, ou uvre, and Houaiss dates uvre to 1721.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ūber (“teat, udder”), through the oblique stem, whose unstressed vowel was lost.^[1] Wiktionary takes it through Old Galician-Portuguese ubre.^[1] Nascentes calls it a syncopated form of the learned úbere, and Cunha gives it as a 16th-century variant of that word.^[4][5]

The same Latin word is Galician ubre, Spanish ubre, Italian uvero (Old Italian) and Romanian uger, whose /g/ the REW explains by a crossing with suge (“to suck”).^[6][7][8]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *ouðer and Proto-Indo-European *h₁ówHdʰr̥ (“udder”), an r/n-stem whose r was made common to all cases.^[1][9] Its cognates include Sanskrit ऊधर् (ū́dhar), Ancient Greek οὖθαρ (oûthar) and Old English ūder, the source of udder.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is of 1593, and Cunha places the form in the 16th century.^[3][5] The Spanish word is first recorded in Nebrija's dictionary.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau derives it from Latin uber and defines it as the teat of the cow or the sow; for ubre da porca he gives Latin sumen, and explains that the Romans prized the sow's belly with its teats as a delicacy.^[2] Vieira and the modern dictionaries treat it as a variant of úbere.^[10][11][12]

In Portugal the form belongs to the north: a dialect study quoted by the TLPGP gives its area as the Minho, western Trás-os-Montes, the Douro Litoral, the north of Beira Litoral and a small part of Beira Alta.^[13] In Brazil Schlee finds it in common use in the countryside of Rio Grande do Sul, as also in Uruguay.^[14]

Timeline

• 1593 – Houaiss's first record.^[3]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau: ubre, ou uvre.^[2] Houaiss dates uvre to 1721.^[3]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira: the teat of the cow or another animal.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) udder, the milk gland of a cow or other female animal, with several teats; the same as úbere.^[3][15][1]

Related words

• Latin ūber
• Spanish ubre

Usage notes

The standard language prefers úbere.^[11] Schlee notes that ubre is nevertheless entered in the official vocabulary of the Academia Brasileira de Letras.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ubre
3. ^ a b c d e Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ubre
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ubre
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. úbere
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9026
7. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. ubre
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 707
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ūber
10. ^ a b 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, 853
11. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ubre
12. ^ 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. ubre
13. ^ 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. ubre
14. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. ubre
15. ^ 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. ubre