álcali

Forms

álcali m (plural álcalis)^[1] Beside álcali Portuguese has the form stressed on the last syllable, alcali, which Porto Editora gives as the more usual one in Portugal.^[2][3]

Etymology

Houaiss and Priberam take it as borrowed from French alcali, first recorded in French in 1509, while Cunha and Aurélio derive it from the Latin of the chemists, Medieval Latin alcali.^[4][3][5][6] The Latin word is from Arabic القلي (al-qily, “the ashes of saltwort; soda”), with the Arabic article.^[4][1][7] The Arabic word first named the plant whose ashes gave soda.^[4][8] The French word is recorded as “alkali” in 1363, and the Medieval Latin one in 1215.^[8]

The stress on the first syllable shows a bookish word: Corriente explains it from the Latin transcription, where the scholars tended to stress such words on the antepenult, and Nascentes compares álcool and álgebra, with the stress drawn back onto the article.^[9][10][11] The DCECH dates Spanish álcali to 1555, the French word to 1509, Italian alcali to the 16th century and alkali to 1578, and argues from the same stress that all came through Latin rather than from one another.^[12]

Corriente, Pereira and Vicente trace the Arabic word through Aramaic to Ancient Greek κονία (konía, “lye”);^[7][9] Corriente's earlier dictionary says only that it seems to come from there.^[7][9]

Semantic evolution

Morais's dictionary of 1813 defines álcali as a chemical term, the common name of three salts, potash, soda and ammonia, which absorb acids and effervesce with them.^[13] Modern chemistry uses it for the hydroxides of the alkali metals and for any substance with the properties of a base.^[4][6][14] Set phrases name particular compounds: álcali volátil is ammonia, álcali natural an alkaloid and álcali artificial an amine.^[4][15] Michaelis also gives the name to the sea plant that yields commercial soda.^[15]

Timeline

• 1509 – French alcali.^[4]
• 1555 – Spanish álcali in Laguna.^[12]
• 1690 – first Portuguese record, according to Houaiss;^[4][5] Cunha puts it in the 17th century.^[4][5]
• 1813 – Morais defines it as the common name of potash, soda and ammonia.^[13]
• 1858 – Cunha's first dates for alcalímetro and alcaloide.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chemistry) Any hydroxide, or oxide, of the alkali metals (lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium and caesium); by extension their carbonates.^{[4][6][16][14]}
2. (chemistry) Any substance with the properties of a base.^[4][16][1]
3. A sea plant from whose ashes commercial soda is made.^[15]

Word family

• alcalino
• alcaloide
• alcalímetro
• alcalinizar
• alcalinidade

Related words

• álcool
• Spanish álcali

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 410
3. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. álcali
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. álcali
5. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. álcali
6. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. álcali
7. ^ a b c Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. álcali
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. alcali
9. ^ a b c Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 131
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. álcali
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 15
12. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 127
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 82
14. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. álcali
15. ^ a b c Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. álcali
16. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. álcali