jabuti

English

Etymology

From Brazilian Portuguese jabuti, from Old Tupi îaboti.

Noun

jabuti (plural jabutis)

1. A Brazilian tortoise, especially a yellow-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis denticulatus).
   • 1879, Herbert Huntington Smith, Brazil, the Amazons and the Coast, page 545:

     The deer gave up the race to the jabuti. The deer then offered to have a trial of strength with the jabuti.

   • 1977, Roberta C. Wigder, Brazil Rediscovered, Dorrance Publishing Company:

     Again, the rabbit would try harder, run faster, and pass the jabuti once more, but no matter how hard he tried or how fast he ran, when he came around the corner, again and again the jabuti was in the lead.

   • 1881, Joel Chandler Harris, Nights with Unlcle Remus:

     The Jabuti is identical with Brother Terrapin. The man carried the Jabuti to his house, put him in a box, and went out. By and by the Jabuti began to sing, just as Brother Babbit did. The man's children listened, and the Jabuti stopped.

   • 2006(?), Livia de Almeida, Ana Portella, Brazilian Folktales, Libraries Unlimited (→ISBN):

     The most popular of all is the jabuti (or Yauti, as it is pronounced in the Tupy language). It is a large turtle, much appreciated as food. Short-legged, slow, weak, and silent, the jabuti in the Amazon tradition is like the fox in the European tales.

Related terms

• jaboticaba

References

• jabuti on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “jabuti”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• jaboti
• jaboty (obsolete)

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old Tupi îaboti.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ʒa.buˈt͡ʃi/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ʒɐ.buˈti/ [ʒɐ.βuˈti]

• Rhymes: -i
• Hyphenation: ja‧bu‧ti

Noun

jabuti m (plural jabutis, feminine (Brazil) jabota, feminine plural (Brazil) jabotas)

1. (zoology) either a yellow-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis denticulatus) or the red-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonarius)

   Synonyms: jabuti-tinga, jabuti-piranga

2. (Brazil, by extension) any tortoise (terrestrial turtle)
3. (Brazil, law, slang) an amendment to a law which is strange to its main subject, as "tortoises do not climb trees" (Brazilian proverb) (it was put onto the tree by someone)

Hypernyms

• quelónio (Portugal), quelônio (Brazil), tartaruga, testudíneo

Coordinate terms

• (tortoise): cágado, tartaruga marinha

Derived terms

• jabutizinho (diminutive)

Descendants

• → English: jabuti

Etymology 2

Noun

jabuti m (uncountable)

1. an indigenous language spoken in Brazil