bacalhau

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese bacalhau.

Doublet of bacalao and baccala.

Noun

bacalhau (uncountable)

1. Dried salted cod; salt cod; klipfish.

Portuguese

bacalhaus

Etymology

From Dutch bakeljauw, bakkeljauw, of uncertain origin. Possibly from Late Latin baccalaureus, baculum (“stick, staff”), referring to the way cod were split and dried on wooden sticks. Or, possibly from Basque bakailao. The Basque term may be either the source or the descendant of Dutch kabeljauw, cognates would then include French cabillaud and German Kabeljau.

Cognate to Italian baccalà, Spanish bacalao, Catalan bacallà, Sicilian baccalaru.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ba.kaˈʎaw/ [ba.kaˈʎaʊ̯]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /bɐ.kɐˈʎaw/

• Rhymes: -aw
• Hyphenation: ba‧ca‧lhau

Noun

bacalhau m (plural bacalhaus)

1. cod
2. salt cod; klipfish
3. stockfish
4. (Portugal, colloquial) handshake (grasping of hands by two people)

   Synonyms: aperto de mão, (Portugal, informal) passou-bem

5. (Portugal, colloquial) vagina (woman's genitalia)

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:vagina

Descendants

• → Basque: bakailao
• >? Saramaccan: bakajáu
• >? Sranan Tongo: batyaw (see there for further descendants)
• → Dutch: bakkeljauw (see there for further descendants)
• → Hawaiian: pakaliao
• → Shona: bakayau

References

• Roberts, Edward A. (2014), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN

Further reading

• bacalhau on the Portuguese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^pt
• “bacalhau”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “bacalhau”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026