What is a "barso"? (ref. Richard Cocks' diaries)
score:0
Barso is from medieval Portuguese barça meaning "small barrel":
Second word: “xxij barsos of singe”
The other word I couldn’t find the root of occurs in the same letters as “singe”: where “singe” is the liquid, “barsos” are the containers. It’s quite clear from the context that a “barso” is a small barrel – from other sources it’s possible to determine that a “barso” holds c.10 litres. But the etymology evaded me: I couldn’t find “barso” in any form in Present-Day Portuguese or Spanish dictionaries, and despite the apparent connection to other words meaning ‘cask’ such as barrel, but also barrillo, barillejo, and barrico, the lack of evidence made me put my hands up.
Once again, Yoshida (1993: 59) comes to the rescue. On the same page as discussed above, his list continues to section B, 酒屋, 酒造道具, 製造工程など ‘sake shop/brewery, sake production tools, manufacturing process etc’. And number 9 in this list is as follows:
In English:
(9) saka-oke (saca uoqe) a container for sake, like an oke [barrel] or a taru [cask] (barça).
...
In fine, then: it seems quite evident that barça was a common Portuguese word for a (small) barrel or a cask.
Upvote:1
My immediate assumption was that it was an anglicisation of Spanish vaso (pronounced /'baso/), meaning 'cup/glass/drinking vessel', since he also anglicises Spanish recado (message) as recardo:
“Copendale at Miaco not very well, and that he bringeth recardo from themperour to set Damian and Jno. de Lievana free.”
Further evidence that it may be Spanish in origin is that he similarly excludes the Spanish word barica/barrico from his section “Some Japanese and other foreign words and terms”, presumably because he assumed such words would be intelligible to his audience.
Sources:
• Diary of Richard Cocks Vol. I, Cape-Merchant in the English Factory in Japan 1615-1622, with Correspondence
• Diary of Richard Cocks Vol. II, Cape-Merchant in the English Factory in Japan 1615-1622, with Correspondence
Upvote:9
The meaning of "barso" is clearer than its origin. Samuli Kaislaniemi analyzed it in his PhD thesis Reconstructing Merchant Multilingualism : Lexical Studies of Early English East India Company Correspondence, p. 256:
RC uses barso in the sense 'little barrel' (cf. Farrington 1991:805). Etymology uncertain; does not appear in PD It., Pt., or Sp. (cf. barrillo, barrilejo); the phonology is not Japanese. Possibly a pseudo-Romance word arising from playful use of language?
In his diary, RC also used barica [...]; Hill (1993) defines barrico as 'keg' (s.v.). The measures for barsos and "greate barelles" letters [sic] (Farrington 1991:803-805) reveal that a barso held c. 10 litres.
This rare word does not appear at all in Merchants of Innovation: The Languages of Traders. Perhaps Cocks invented it.
More post
- 📝 During the time of the British Mandate, who opposed the term "Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine" and who if any were OK with it being called that?
- 📝 How was the manorial system a consequence of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire?
- 📝 Wreck of the Juno
- 📝 Madness in the early modern era (pre-enlightenment, Habsburg monarchy)
- 📝 Who named San Andreas, California?
- 📝 Who is this particular inventor from XIX century?
- 📝 Primary sources from Umayyad times
- 📝 Why did the US invade Cuba in such a weak manner?
- 📝 Why was there an increase in literature regarding fire safety in America during the 1970s?
- 📝 How expensive were castles? And how were the costs distributed?
- 📝 What title did the merchants permitted to deal with Canton's 13 Factories carry?
- 📝 How would prospective members join a medieval European guild?
- 📝 Why did Cretan archers flourish?
- 📝 How would I establish a value for these watches?
- 📝 Were there any generals in history who were willing to risk "half their army" in order win the war quickly?
- 📝 Which EU countries insisted on unanimous voting for trade deals?
- 📝 Why are only the Normandy landings referred to as D-Day?
- 📝 Why did Hitler order counter-attacks as late as 21/04/1945?
- 📝 Why did United States choose conflict with Japan over China?
- 📝 When and how did the term "Nazi" start replacing the term "Germans" in the context of WW2?
- 📝 Why do people refuse to acknowledge the Holocaust?
- 📝 How much would votes sell for in early America?
- 📝 How were immigrant doctors and nurses sponsored in 1960/1970s?
- 📝 Did the "unexpectedness" of key events argue against a "third strike" at Pearl Harbor?
- 📝 Imposition of property taxes in California
- 📝 Where did Theophrastus write about a "a common chest" into which funds are placed in case of a member's hardship?
- 📝 Marc Bloch's "Feudal Society"; Why do nobles have this vocation?
- 📝 Diaries of Nicolas II
- 📝 How could West Berlin had access West Germany/world while the wall was up?
- 📝 Was there a single ancient religion that all others sprang from?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What is a "barso"? (ref. Richard Cocks' diaries)
- 📝 What was Richard Owen's status within the Royal Society in 1858?
- 📝 Why did Americans oppose Richard Nixon's visit to China? What "past policies" were Nixon going against?
- 📝 What gift did Saladin send to Richard when he was ill?
- 📝 What and who killed Richard the Lionheart and what happened to him?
- 📝 What was Shakespeare's motive to make Richard III seem like a villain?
- 📝 What was the most expensive arson in history? -- Was it the burning of the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6)?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 What is the origin of 3 meals a day?
- 📝 What is the first recorded dog name?
- 📝 What were paper airplanes called before there were real airplanes? (i.e. untethered winged flyers, not kites or balloons)
- 📝 What drugs were used in England during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What knowledge may have been lost at the Library of Alexandria?
- 📝 What damage did anti-tank rifles hope to inflict on tanks in WW2?
- 📝 What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- 📝 What fueled the street lights in 13th-century Cordoba?
- 📝 Was murdering a slave illegal in American slavery, and if so, what punishments were given for it?
- 📝 What do the phone number suffixes J, M, R, W in 1940 New York phone book mean?
- 📝 What are the factors that caused the new world civilizations to be less technologically advanced than the old world?
- 📝 What was the historical context of the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution?
- 📝 What is the significance behind "40 days" that often appears in the Bible?
- 📝 What did babies eat before the advent of modern blenders?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What mysterious Flemish peasant activity is depicted in this painting?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 Aside from the Pyramids, what is the tallest man-made structure still standing in Europe & the Near East from ancient times?
- 📝 What is a major historical event historians are deeply divided over?
- 📝 What did the Emancipation Proclamation exactly do?
- 📝 What is the logic for the map maker classifying the map this way, specifically in Canada?
- 📝 What do the numbers on this 1960s anti-integration sign mean?