musurana

English

Noun

musurana (plural musuranas)

Alternative form of mussurana.

Old Tupi

The prisioner, at the center, tied by the **musurana**. From Hans Staden's *Warhaftige Historia* (1557).

Alternative forms

Historical spellings
Anchieta (1555)	moçurana
Staden (1557)	Muſſurana

Etymology

From musu (“swamp eel”) +‎ ran (“false”) +‎ -a.^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [mu.suˈɾã.na]
Rhymes: -ãna
Hyphenation: mu‧su‧ra‧na

Noun

musurana (possessable)

A cotton rope tied around the waist and neck of the prisioner to be killed in an anthropophagic ritual.
- [1557, Hans Staden, chapter XXIV, in Warhaftige Hiſtoria [True History], volume 2 (in German), Marburg: Andreas Kolbe, unnumbered page:
  Des tages ʒuuorne/ehe ſie anheben ʒutrincken/binden ſie dem gefangenen die ſchnur Muſſurana vmb den hals.
  The next day, as soon as they start drinking, they tie the “musurana” rope around the prisoner's neck.]
- c. 1583, Joseph of Anchieta, “Na feſta de .ſ. L^ço [At the Saint Lawrence Festival]” (chapter XLIV), in [livrinho de variaſ poeziaſ] [Booklet of various poems], Niterói, page 76v, lines 744–745; republished as Maria de Lourdes de Paula Martins, compiler, Poesias, São Paulo, 1956, page 144:
  Tataurana / eru que nde moçurana.
  [Tataûrana / eru ké nde musurana.]
  Tataûrana, bring your “musurana” here.
- [1587, Gabriel Soares de Sousa, chapter CLXXI, 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 303:
  Os contrarios que os Tupinambás cativam na guerra, ou de outra qualquer maneira, metem-nos em prisões, as quaes são cordas de algodão grossas, que para isso tem mui louçãs, a que chamam mucuranas, as quaes são tecidas como os cabos dos cabrestos de Africa; e com ellas os atam pela cinta e pelo pescoço […]
  The oppositors that the Tupinambá hold captive in war, or by any other means, are placed in prisions, which are thick cotton ropes that they have high regard, that they call “musurana”, weaved as the cables of African halters; and with that they tie them up by the waist and neck.]

Descendants

→ Brazilian Portuguese: muçurana

References

^ Navarro, Eduardo de Almeida (2013), “musurana”, in Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil [Dictionary of Old Tupi: The Classical Indigenous Language of Brazil ] (overall work in Portuguese), São Paulo: Global, →ISBN, page 320, column 2

Spanish

Noun

musurana f (plural musuranas)

mussurana

[1] Navarro, Eduardo de Almeida (2013), “musurana”, in Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil [Dictionary of Old Tupi: The Classical Indigenous Language of Brazil ] (overall work in Portuguese), São Paulo: Global, →ISBN, page 320, column 2

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