jiboya

English

Alternative forms

• giboia, giboya, jiboia

Etymology

From Portuguese jiboia, from Old Tupi îyboîa.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɔɪ.ə

Noun

jiboya (plural jiboyas)

1. (uncommon) The boa constrictor.
   • 1820, Richard Paul Jodrell, Philology on the English Language:

     […] the largest animal of this kind, which has been brought into Europe, is but thirty-six feet long : the most usual length however of the jiboya is about twenty feet, and the thickness in proportion.

   • 1886, Georg Hartwig, The Tropical World: Aspects of Man and Nature in the Equatorial Regions of the Globe, page 301:

     Prince Maximilian of Neu Wied tells us that the experienced hunter laughs when asked whether the jiboya attacks and devours man.

   • 2011, Carlos Prieto, The Adventures of a Cello: Revised Edition, with a New Epilogue, University of Texas Press (→ISBN)

     The Indians kept them in huge wooden boxes, and for a small tip, five or six boys would take out the gigantic sucuris, anacondas that live in water, and then some jiboyas of a similar size, but that are primarily land creatures.