gûaîugûaîu

Old Tupi

Etymology

Reduplication of gûaîu.

Noun

gûaîugûaîu (?)

  1. (hapax legomenon) army ant (Eciton sp.)[1]
    Synonyms: gûaîu, mopeteka, taoka
    • [1587, Gabriel Soares de Sousa, chapter CXX, in Notícia do Brasil (in Portuguese), Salvador; republished as Francisco Adolpho de Varnhagen, editor, Tratado descriptivo do Brazil em 1587, 2nd edition, Rio de Janeiro: João Ignancio da Silva, 1879, page 249:
      Temos que dizer de outra casta de formigas mui estranha, a que os indios chamam goajugoajú, as quaes são pequenas e ruivas, e mordem muito […]
      We must tell about another, very strange breed of ants that the Indians call “gûaîugûaîu”, which are small and reddish, and bite a lot.]

Descendants

  • Nheengatu: wayuwayú
  • → Brazilian Portuguese: guaju-guaju

References

  1. ^ Papavero, Nelson; Teixeira, Dante Martins (2014), Zoonímia tupi nos escritos quinhentistas europeus [Tupi zoonymy in the 16th-century European writings] (Arquivos NEHiLP; 3) (in Portuguese), São Paulo: FFLCH-USP, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 295, line 423

Further reading

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