Why carioca means what it means?
Disregard this question if this has nothing to do with Spanish.
I looked up the dictionary definition of carioca=of/from Rio de Janeiro, but seems to me there is more to it. Did the song La Carioca created this word'
5 Answers
James Santiago said:
Quentin, you might want to fix the English there and send it back to your friend. Looks like useful information, but it would be much more useful if written in proper English.
I am completely bored at work, so I'll fix it.
The origin of the word is explained in Wikipedia, but there is a little further information that I am going to try to put here. The word comes from Tupi which is the Indians' language (the people who first lived here). It means "White Man's house." But why? The Portuguese colonizers built houses with stone and lime when they came here in 1503 and the Indians didn't know that kind of building. Their dwellings were placed along the river called "Tijuca." At that time, it was the only source from which people could drink water. (that river was the only source of potable water) ["potable water" is clear but redundant] So Portugueses, Frenches and Indians people fought for this source of water. Later, that river was known as "Carioca." And It was important to the city's progress. Because of this importance, Carioca is the word given to the people born in Rio de Janeiro City.
I hope this could help,
Quentin, you might want to fix the English there and send it back to your friend. Looks like useful information, but it would be much more useful if written in proper English.
I sent the Wikipedia article to a friend in Brazil. She is adding some additional information to the article. Thought you might want to read it.
The origin of the word is explained in Wikipedia. But there is a little further information that I am going to try to put here. The word comes from Tupi which is the Indians language, people who first lived here. It means White Man's house. But why? The Portuguese colonizers built houses with stone and lime when they came here in 1.503 and the Indians didn't know that kind of building. Their dwellings were placed along the river called Tijuca. At that time, it was the only one people could drink water. (that river was the only source of potable water) So Portugueses, Frenches and Indians people fought for this source of water. Later, that river was knowed by Carioca. And it was important to the city progress. Because of this importance, Carioca is the word given to the people born in Rio de Janeiro City.
I hope this could help,
Thank you for the pointer (URL) in wikipedia for the 'definition' of Carioca. The YouTube URL is not my type, I am more Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers type of person - like what they did in the movie "Flying Down To Rio".
<http://www.youtube.com/watch'v=osCbxvFP8fM>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carioca
Seems to b a regional population or dialect of Brazilian Portuguese. The origen of the term is provided.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch'v=POlCBUspdOg>
Hope you're not thinking of karaoke. If so, you're at the wrong part of the world.
