miuca

Old Galician-Portuguese

Miuca

Alternative forms

• minhoca

Etymology

Uncertain. Given the Asturian cognates (milu, meruca) and some current Galician (mioca, moca) and Portuguese forms (mioca), perhaps from *milo- + -oca, or *milokka, from a substrate language. The modern forms Portuguese minhoca and Galician miñoca are due to progressive nasalization, as minha, miña from Latin mea.

If related or derived from Proto-Celtic *mīlom (“animal”), then from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh₁l- (“small animal”).

Noun

miuca f (plural miucas)

1. (Galicia) earthworm
   • c. 1409, J. L. Pensado Tomé, editor, Tratado de Albeitaria, Santiago de Compostela: Centro Ramón Piñeiro, page 131:

     Para esto ual a çebolla assada pisada con miucas da terra et con as llesmez et con manteyga rretuda desuu, todo amasado et coyto et meixudo todo ataa que se tome espeso como jngento

     for this is valid roasted onion crushed with earthworms and with slugs and melted butter, all together, kneaded and cooked and stirred till is thick as an ointment

Descendants

• Galician: miñoca, binoca, binocra, mañoca, mexoca, minoca, mioca, miocra, moca (dialectal forms), minhoca (reintegrationist)
• Portuguese: minhoca, menhoca, minoca, mioca

References

• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “miuca”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “miñoca”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “minhoca”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN