umbigo

Forms

umbigo m (plural umbigos)^[1] The medieval forms were enbijgo and embiigo (13th century), enbiigo, ynbiigo, inbigo and ymbiigo (14th century).^[2][3] Embigo was the usual spelling until the 18th century and survives in popular speech;^[2][4][5] Houaiss records umbrigo in 1563 and umbigo in 1661.^[2][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin umbilīcus (“navel”), through a form Old Galician-Portuguese *umbiigo, and was written Old Galician-Portuguese embiigo in the oldest texts.^[5][6][3] The /l/ between vowels was lost and /k/ became /ɡ/; the two /i/ then merged.^[6][3] The REW traces the initial ⟨e⟩ of the old forms to the Late Latin variant imbilīcus, which the Appendix Probi condemns.^[7][8]

The same Latin word is Galician embigo, Spanish ombligo, Catalan melic, Italian ombelico and Romanian buric.^[7][1] The learned doublet is umbílico.^[1] De Vaan derives the Latin noun from an l-stem, Proto-Indo-European *h₃nbʰ-(e/o)l- (“navel”), with the suffix -īcus added; its cognates include Ancient Greek ὀμφαλός (omphalós), Old Irish imbliu and Old High German nabalo.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cantiga d'escarnho of Pero Garcia d'Ambroa already has embiigo: se do embiigo avedes sabor “if you have a taste for the navel”.^[10] Houaiss dates the spelling enbijgo to the 13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) heads the word Embigo, and Bluteau, under embígo, describes the navel's role in feeding the foetus.^[11][12] Houaiss's first record of a form with u- is umbrigo in Garcia da Orta's Colóquios of 1563.^[5][13] The word came to mean any navel-like hollow or bump, as at the end of the navel orange (laranja-da-baía, laranja de umbigo), and figuratively the centre of something.^[5][14] Umbigo de freira was a kind of sweet biscuit.^[15]

Timeline

• 13th century – enbijgo and embiigo.^[2][3]
• 14th century – enbiigo, ynbiigo and inbigo.^[2][3]
• 1563 – umbrigo in Garcia da Orta.^[5]
• 1611 – Barbosa heads the word Embigo.^[11]
• 1661 – umbigo.^[5]
• 1723 – embigo in a private letter.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The navel, the scar in the middle of the belly left by the cutting of the umbilical cord.^[5][4][1]
2. Any hollow or bump like a navel;^[5][4] (botany) the navel-like growth at the end of some fruits, such as the navel orange.^[5][4]
3. (zoology) The hollow at the base of the spiral shell of some molluscs.^[17][14]
4. (figurative) The centre of something.^[17][18]

Word family

• umbigada
• umbigueira

Related words

• umbilical
• umbílico
• Latin umbilīcus
• Spanish ombligo

Usage notes

Deixar o umbigo em a place means to have been born there.^[5][4] In Rio Grande do Sul ter o umbigo preso means to remain dependent on someone.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. embigo
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. umbigo
4. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. umbigo
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. umbigo
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. umbigo
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. umbilicus
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. umbilicus
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. embiigo
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. embigo
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. embígo
13. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 514
14. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9296
15. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. umbigo
16. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. umbigo
17. ^ 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. umbigo
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. umbigo
19. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. umbigo