Iracema

Portuguese

Etymology

Coined by Brazilian writer José de Alencar in 1865, as the name of the title character in the novel Iracema. It means "honey lips" in Old Tupi according to the author, although honey is eíra and lip is apûã／embé. Navarro proposes it's actually from Nheengatu ira sema (“bee's exit”).^[1]

Pronunciation

(Brazil) IPA^(key): /i.ɾaˈsẽ.mɐ/
- (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /i.ɾaˈse.ma/

(Portugal) IPA^(key): /i.ɾɐˈse.mɐ/

Hyphenation: I‧ra‧ce‧ma

Proper noun

Iracema f

a female given name of Brazilian usage

References

^ Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (2013) “Iracema”, 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 570, column 1

Anagrams

América

[1] Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (2013) “Iracema”, 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 570, column 1

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