jurubaça

From Portuguese jurubaça, from Malay jurubahasa (“interpreter”).

jurubaça (plural jurubaças) (historical)

1. An interpreter of Portuguese in the Far East, particularly in Macau and other Portuguese colonies between the 16th and the 18th centuries.

• Jurubaça on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• iurubaça, jurabaça

From Malay jurubahasa (“interpreter”). First attested in the 16th century.

• Rhymes: -asɐ
• Hyphenation: ju‧ru‧ba‧ça

jurubaça m (plural jurubaças)

1. (Asia, Early Modern, historical) jurubaça
   • 1557 October 29, Gaspar Vilela, [Carta do padre Gaſpar Vilela de Iapaõ […] ] [Letter of Father Gaspar Vilela from Japan], Hirado Island; republished as Cartas que os padres e irmāos de Companhia de Ieſus, que andão nos Reynos de Iapão eſcreuerāo aos da mesma Companhia da India, & Europa, des do anno de 1549. atè o de 1580 [Letters that the Society of Jesus's priests and brothers that walk on the kingdoms of Japan wroten to others in the same society of India and Europe, bewteen 1549 and 1580], volume 1, Évora: Manoel de Lyra, 1598, page 54, columns 1–2:

     Compramos com ſua licença hum campo, onde fizemos hũa igreja de noſſa Sñora, para q̃ quãdo ali vierem Portugueſes tenhão caſa de oraçaõ, para ſe encomadarem a Deos, & para os Chriſtãos da terra terem deuaçaõ as couſas de Deos & ouuirem a doutrina, q̃ ſe lhes prega, para o q̃ leuou o padre hum irmão conſigo para Iurubaça, & interprete, & juntamẽte hum Chriſtão doutrinado nas couſas da fé.

     With his license we bought a field where we built a Church of Our Lady, so that when the Portuguese arrive there they will have a house of prayer, for commiting to God and for the native Christians to have devotion to God's things and hearing the doctrine that is preached to them; for that, the priest took a brother with him as a jurubaça and interpreter, along with a Christian indoctrinated in the things of faith.

   • 1643 January 14, António Francisco Cardim, Relaçaõ da gloriosa morte de qvatro Embaixadores Portuguezes, da Cidade de Macao, com sincoenta, & sete Christaõs da sua companhia, degolàdos todos pella fee de Christo em Nangassaqui, Cidade de Iappaõ, a tres de Agosto de 1640 [Relation of the glorious death of four Portuguese ambassadors from the City of Macao, together with 57 Christians, all of them beheaded for their faith in Christ in Nagasaki, Japanese city, in 3 August 1640], Lisbon: Officina de Lourenço de Anueres, unnumbered page:

     […] o ſoldado ſobredito Bento de Lima Cardoſo, naõ ſendo mais, que de dezanoue annos de idade, reſpondeo à meſma pergunta, que lhe fizeraõ, ſe queria cair? as palauras ſeguintes, por modo de deſdem, & como que zombaua do Iurubaça, que lha fez (cair? he força caya o corpo, quando me cortarem a cabeça) […]

     The aforementioned soldier Bento de Lima Cardoso, being no more than 19 years old, answered the same question they asked them — if he wanted to “fall”. The following words [were said] in disdain, as if mocking the jurubaça that asked it: “Fall? Surely my body will fall when they cut my head off.”

     cair (literally “to fall”) is how the interpreters translated 転(ころ)ぶ (korobu), used in the sense of renouncing one's faith^[1]

• → English: jurubaça