onça

See also: onca and ONCA

English

Alternative forms

• onca

Etymology

From Portuguese onça, from Latin uncia (“unit, ¹⁄₁₂ pound”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one”).

Noun

onça (plural onças)

1. (historical) A traditional Portuguese unit of mass, usually equivalent to 28.7 g.

Coordinate terms

• (unit of mass): grao (¹⁄₅₇₆ onça), vintem (¹⁄₂₅₆ onça), quilate (¹⁄₁₄₄ onça), escropulo (¹⁄₂₄ onça), oitava (¹⁄₈ onça), quarta (4 onças), marco (8 onças), libra (usually 12 onças), arratel (16 onças)

Catalan

Etymology

From earlier leonça by misdivision, and this from Old French leonce or Italian lonza. Cognate with English ounce (“snow leopard”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈɔn.sə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [ˈon.sa]

Noun

onça f (plural onces)

1. a name applied to various large felids, such as the cheetah or the jaguar

   Synonym: guepard

Further reading

• “onça” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈõ.sɐ/

• Hyphenation: on‧ça

Etymology 1

From Latin uncia (“unit, ¹⁄₁₂ pound”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one”). As an English unit, a semantic loan of English ounce. Cognate with Galician and Spanish onza, Catalan unça, French once, and English ounce and inch.

Noun

onça f (plural onças)

1. English or American ounce, a unit of mass equal to 28.35 g
2. (historical) onça, Portuguese ounce, a traditional unit of mass, usually equivalent to 28.7 g
3. (historical) onça, ounce, a former gold coin weighing one Portuguese ounce

Coordinate terms

• (English unit of mass): libra (16 onças)
• (Portuguese unit of mass): grão (¹⁄₅₇₆ onça), vintém (¹⁄₂₅₆ onça), quilate (¹⁄₁₄₄ onça), escrópulo (¹⁄₂₄ onça), oitava (¹⁄₈ onça), quarta (4 onças), marco (8 onças), libra (usually 12 onças), arrátel (16 onças)

Etymology 2

From Italian lonza (leopard or lynx), from Vulgar Latin *luncea, from Latin lynx, from Ancient Greek λύγξ (lúnx), from Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“to shine, bright, to see”). Doublet of lince.

Uma onça (jaguar).

Uma onça (leopard).

Noun

onça f (plural onças)

1. (Brazil) jaguar (Panthera onca, a feline of Latin America)

   Synonyms: jaguar, onça-pintada

2. (Angola) leopard (Panthera pardus, a feline of Africa and Asia)

   Synonyms: pantera, leopardo

3. (less commonly) cougar (Puma concolor, a pan-American feline)

   Synonyms: onça-parda, suçuarana, leão-baio, leão-da-montanha

4. (Brazil, slang) a R$50 bill, which bears the image of a jaguar

   Coordinate terms: see Thesaurus:dinheiro

Derived terms

• amigo da onça
• cutucar a onça com vara curta

Related terms

• lince