Carcamano
Carcamano (Portuguese pronunciation: immigrants who arrived in Brazil in the late 19th century and in the early 20th century.
This name was originally given to the
Arab Brazilians.[1]
Folk etymology wrongly advocates that the word carcamano is composed of two separate words. Calca- drawn from the Italian verb calcare, which means "to press down" and -mano (IT) meaning "hand".[2][3] The idea was to refer to the foreigner, probably of Italian origin (whence mano, vs. Portuguese mão), of pressing down on the scales when weighing goods in the dry goods or grocery store. It is a way of calling the vendor a cheat.
The real etymological base of the word is disputed. According to the Brazilian filologist
Perú), a poor foreigner (in Cuba), pretentious person with few merits (in Colombia) and Italians - in particular Italians from Liguria - (in Argentina).[4][5]
References
- ^ Novas Visões de São Paulo[permanent dead link], April 16th, 2007
- ^ Etymological Dictionary
- ^ Les Langues dans le monde ancien et moderne, Volume 1 - Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1981
- Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa
- ^ Dias Lopes - O Estado de S. Paulo. "A mão culinária do carcamano". 2012-11-14. Retrieved 2019-06-02.