jagunço

English

Etymology

From Portuguese jagunço.

Noun

jagunço (plural jagunços)

1. A hired gunman in backland Brazil; a militiaman or bodyguard; a bandit or outlaw.
   • 1984, Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by Helen R. Lane, The War of the End of the World, Folio Society, published 2012, page 85:

     Maria Quadrado, Alexandrinha Correa, and Gertrudes […] went around placing the dead bodies of jagunços in hammock litters so that they could be carried back to Canudos to be buried.

   • 2016, Alex Cuadros, Brazillionaires:

     Though the government forces carried modern rifles against their one-shot muskets and scraping knives, the jagunços repelled first a detachment of a hundred men and then a detachment of five hundred.

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ʒaˈɡũ.su/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ʒaˈɡũ.su/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ʒaˈɡũ.so/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ʒɐˈɡũ.su/ [ʒɐˈɣũ.su]

• Hyphenation: ja‧gun‧ço

Noun

jagunço m (plural jagunços)

1. (Brazil) bodyguard; thug, hoodlum; jagunço

   Synonyms: capanga, caceteiro

2. hitman, contract killer (man hired to kill)
3. scamp, rascal
4. a blade traditionally used as a weapon in Bahia and Pernambuco