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ENGLISH
PORTUGUESE LINGUISTICS & CULTURE |
Autor: | Márcio Farias |
E-mail: | marcio_osorio@oi.com.br |
Data: | 28/JUN/2007 11:05 PM |
Assunto: | mictório |
Mensagem: |
On an etymology note Houaiss suggests that the term mictório derives from mictum + -ório, a combination patterned after the word lavatório. So up with it came Nascentes and AGC. Back in 1899, they wanted a trendy word for imperial princess D. Isabel to use on agreeing upon a motion moved by the city of Rio de Janeiro on public rest rooms (the word mijadouro looked ugly and unfitting. So did mijadeiro.) Whether D. Isabel indeed used "mictório" or dropped it altogether we do not know, but dictionaries do. They hastened to pick it up and the word stuck to this day.
Old and ear-grating as mijadeiro along with mijadouro and sumidouro may have seem at the time, they also sounded worse. And even today to the Argh'ing majority they continue to sound worse. Yet you will find these words in the dictionary. They made history then. So thinks a Márcio Farias after writing for so long.
So long. |