Carioca

History

The archaic demonym for the state of Rio de Janeiro is Fluminense, taken from the Latin word flūmen, meaning "river". Despite the fact that Carioca is a more ancient demonym of Rio de Janeiro's inhabitants (known since 1502), it was replaced by fluminense in 1783, when the latter was sanctioned as the official demonym of the Royal Captainship of Rio de Janeiro (later the Province of Rio de Janeiro). In 1763, the colonial capital of Brazil was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. From 1783 and during the rest of the colonial period and then the independent empire, Carioca remained only as a nickname by which other Brazilians called the inhabitants of Rio (city and province). During the first years of the Brazilian Republic, Carioca was the name given to those who lived in the slums or a pejorative way to refer to the bureaucratic elite of the Federal District. In 1960, when Brazil’s capital and the Federal District were transferred from Rio de Janeiro to newly built Brasília, the city of Rio de Janeiro was reorganized as the state of Guanabara. During this transition, Carioca was recognized as a co-official demonym alongside Guanabarino, both referring to residents of the former capital. In 1975, during the presidency of Ernesto Geisel under Brazil’s military dictatorship, the State of Guanabara was merged with the neighboring State of Rio de Janeiro. Following the merger, the city of Rio de Janeiro replaced Niterói as the capital of the unified state, and Carioca became the official demonym for inhabitants of the city. Nowadays, Carioca is used to exclusively refer to those born in the city of Rio de Janeiro, while everyone born in the state of Rio de Janeiro is referred to as a Fluminense.