Macanese

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Ultimately from Old Galician-Portuguese algũa cousa (something, anything), likely via an earlier form of Portuguese alguma coisa, possibly algũa cousa reduced via [alguŋa kuza] → [a uŋa kuza] → [aŋkuza].[1] Semantically, displaced cuza as a noun. Compare Galician algunha cousa.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /aŋˈkuza/, /aŋˈkuzɐ/

Noun

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ancusa

  1. thing (a physical object, entity or situation)
    estunga ancusathis (literally, “this thing”)
    tudo ancusaeverything
    Sentâ na casa, renâ ancuza triste
    To sit at home, thinking about sad things

Derived terms

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Pronoun

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ancusa

  1. (indefinite) something
    seléa ancusasomething like this[2]
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References

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  1. ^ Batalha, Graciete Nogueira (1988) Glossário do dialecto macaense: notas linguísticas, etnográficas e folclóricas [Glossary of the Macanese dialect: linguistic, ethnographic and folkloric notes], Macau: Instituto Cultural de Macau, page 426
  2. ^ https://www.macaneselibrary.org/pub/english/uipatua.htm