nubeiro

Galician

FWOTD – 16 January 2016

Etymology

Nube (“cloud”) +‎ -eiro. Compare Asturian nubeiru.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nu.ˈβej.ɾo/

Noun

nubeiro m (plural nubeiros)

1. (Galician, Asturian and Leonese folklore) an evil creature who is able to start storms and cast lightning
   • 1843, George Henry Borrow, The Bible in Spain; Or the Journeys, Adventures and Imprisonnements of an Englishman, in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula:

     That man, sir Cavalier, is no thief. If he is anything at all, he is a nuveiro - a fellow who rides upon the clouds, and is occasionally whisked away by a gust of wind [...] he is a nuveiro and has sunk more ships than all his brethren in Galicia.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • Esperanza Mariño Davila, Un fillo bastardo de O divino sainete: o poema asturiano El Cuinto la Xana (1895) in 2001, Xesús Alonso Montero, Henrique Monteagudo, Begona Tajes Marcote, Actas do I congreso internacional “Curros Enríquez e o seu tempo”, volume 2, Consello da Cultura Galega, page 351:

     Faltan para completar o elenco os trasgos ou trasnos domésticos nocturnos e argallantes, o cuélebre ou cobra con ás (que custodia tesouros e vive en covas, bosques e fontes, bardante da vellez en que ise dirixe ao mar), a guaxa ou meiga chuchona, as bruxas e os malignos nubeiros, controladores da chuvia, vento e tronos.

     To finish the cast we need the trasgos or the nocturnal and mischievous domestic trasnos, the cuélebre or winged cobra (who guards treasures and lives in caves, woods and springs, except when it becomes old and moves to the sea), the guaxa or sucking witch, the witches and evil clouders, controllers of the rain, wind and thunder.

References

• “nubeiro” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “nubeiro” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “nubeiro” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.