cachaça

See also: cachaca

English

Bottles of cachaça

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Portuguese cachaça, of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈʃɑː.sə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kəˈʃɑ.sə/
• Rhymes: -ɑːsə
• Hyphenation: ca‧cha‧ça

Noun

cachaça (countable and uncountable, plural cachaças)

2. A type of distilled spirit made from fermented sugar cane juice, popular in Brazil, used as one of the ingredients of a caipirinha. [from 19th c.]
   • 1984, Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by Helen R. Lane, The War of the End of the World, Folio Society, published 2012, page 222:

     A line of ants heads across the table, detouring around the bottle of cachaça that is now empty.

   • 2003, Peter Robb, A Death in Brazil, Bloomsbury, published 2005, page 34:

     Neat cachaça put fire in your belly and stilled the pangs of hunger.

Translations

distilled spirit from sugar cane

• Japanese: カシャッサ (kashassa)
• Old Tupi: kaûĩtatá
• Portuguese: cachaça (pt) f, (slang) pinga (pt) f
• Spanish: cachaza (es) f

Old Galician-Portuguese

Noun

cachaça f (plural cachaças)

1. (cooking) salted pork head

Descendants

• Galician: cachaza, cachaça (reintegrationist)
  • → Spanish: cachaza

Further reading

• Universo Cantigas - "cachaça"

Portuguese

Etymology

Uncertain, possibly from cachaço (“boar”). Compare Spanish cachaza.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kaˈʃa.sɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kaˈʃa.sɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /kaˈʃa.sa/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɐˈʃa.sɐ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɐˈʃa.sɐ/
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɐˈt͡ʃa.sɐ/

• Rhymes: -asɐ
• Hyphenation: ca‧cha‧ça

Noun

cachaça f (plural cachaças)

2. cachaça (distilled spirit from sugar cane)

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cachaça

   Hypernym: aguardente

3. (Brazil, loosely, informal) any alcoholic beverage, especially a distilled spirit; booze, grog

Related terms

• cachaça da cabeça
• cachaça de jambu
• cachaça sour
• cachaçada
• cachaçado coração
• cachaçado rabo, cachaçado do rabo
• cachação
• cachaçaria
• cachaçarita
• cachaceiro
• encachaçado
• encachaçar

Descendants

• → English: cachaça
• → Krenak: kathath
• → Japanese: カシャッサ (kashassa)
• → Spanish: cachaça

Noun

cachaça m or f by sense (plural cachaças)

1. (Brazil, metonymic) synonym of cachaceiro: drunkard

Further reading

• “cachaça”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “cachaça”, in Dicionário Eletrônico Houaiss [Houaiss Electronic Dictionary] (in Portuguese), São Paulo: UOL, 2004–2026
• “cachaça”, in Dicionário Infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “cachaça”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2026, →ISBN
• “cachaça”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaˈt͡ʃaθa/ [kaˈt͡ʃa.θa] (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• IPA^(key): /kaˈt͡ʃasa/ [kaˈt͡ʃa.sa] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -aθa (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• Rhymes: -asa (Latin America, Philippines)
• Syllabification: ca‧cha‧ça

Noun

cachaça m (plural cachaças)

1. cachaça

   Synonym: cachaza