kaninana

Old Tupi

Etymology

Unknown.

Noun

kaninana (unpossessable)

1. a black and yellow colubrid. Further details are uncertain. Possibilities include:
   • Gabriel Soares de Sousa (1587) chapter CXIII, 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 264: “Caninam”
   1. tropical chicken snake (Spilotes pullatus)
2. a green colubrid. Further details are uncertain.
   • 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 § 4 (overall work in English), London: H. Fetherston, published 1625, page 1303: “Caninana”
   • anonymous author (1622) “cobra”, 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 76: “Caninana”

Descendants

• Nheengatu: kaninana
• → Portuguese: caninana

References

• Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (2013) “kaninana”, 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 217, column 1
• Nelson Papavero, Dante Martins Teixeira (2014) Zoonímia tupi nos escritos quinhentistas europeus [Tupian zoonymy in 16th century European writings] (Arquivos NEHiLP; 3) (in Portuguese), São Paulo: FFLCH-USP, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 271