'Ypupîara

Old Tupi

Etymology

From 'y +‎ pupîara, literally “what is inside the water”.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aɾa

Proper noun

'Ypupîara

1. an hostile water sprite, which was said to drown people crossing water bodies.
   • Pero de Magalhães Gândavo (1576) chapter 9, in Hiſtoria da prouincia ſãcta Cruz a qui vulgarmẽte chamamos Brasil‎^[1] (overall work in Portuguese), Lisbon: Antonio Gonsaluez, page 32: “Hipupiára”
   • Fernão Cardim (p. 1583) “A Treatiſe of Braſil, written by a Portugall which had long lived there”, in Samuel Purchas, transl., Francis Cooke, compiler, Pvrchas his Pilgrimes, part IV, book VII, chapter I § VI (overall work in English), London: H. Fetherston, published 1625, page 1315: “Ypupiapra”
   • Gabriel Soares de Sousa (1587) chapter CXXVII, in Noticia do Brasil (overall work in Portuguese), Salvador; republished as Francisco Adolpho de Varnhagen, editor, Tratado descriptivo do Brazil em 1587, Rio de Janeiro: Laemmert, 1851, page 280: “upupiara”
   • Francisco Soares (1590–1596) “Homẽs marinhos”, in De alguãs Cousas mais notaueis do brasil e de alguñs costumes dos Indios (overall work in Portuguese), page 85; republished as Antônio Geraldo da Cunha, compiler, Coisas Notáveis do Brasil (Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa; 6), Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, 1966, page 199, line 2214: “Jgpupiara”
   • anonymous author (1622) “Cousa mâ q. anda nagoa”, in Vocabulario na lingoa Braſilica (overall work in Portuguese), Piratininga; republished as Carlos Drummond, editor, Vocabulário na Língua Brasílica, 2nd edition, volume 1, São Paulo: USP, 1953, page 85: “Jgpupiara”

Usage notes

• Further details about this being, or if it was even a real animal, are unkown. In fact, the first and one of the only firsthand depictions of it was made by Anchieta in 1560, who simply describes it as some water demon. Nearly all subsequent writings were either fabrications or fanciful depictions of what some authors believe to be sea lions.

Descendants

• → Portuguese: Ipupiara