aço

Forms

aço m (plural aços)^[1] Houaiss records the medieval spelling azo in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

The word for steel is a back-formation from Portuguese aceiro, the old word for steel, written Old Galician-Portuguese açeyro in the 14th century: the ending -eiro was taken for a suffix and dropped.^[2][3][4][1] That word comes from Late Latin aciārium (“steel”), which Corominas, cited by Houaiss, explains as first an adjective in the phrase ferrum aciarium (“tempered iron, steel”), later used as a noun.^[2][5] Medieval Latin documents spell it acciarium, acerium, azarium and in other ways.^[6] It comes from aciēs (“sharp edge, point”), the edge or point of a weapon.^[7][8]

The Late Latin word is Galician aceiro, Spanish acero, Catalan acer, Occitan acièr, French acier and Italian acciaio; of the Romance languages only Portuguese shortened it.^[9][10] In French the word is recorded from 1080.^[11]

Wiktionary derives the Latin word from aceō (“to be sour”) with the suffix -iēs, and compares Ancient Greek ἀκίς (akís, “point”) and Proto-Germanic *agjō (“edge”); the root is Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp, pointed”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to before 1279 from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, and Machado also places the first record in the 13th century.^[2][3] The sense there is the metal; the older aceiro “steel” lived on beside it and is recorded in a 14th-century fable collection (nom achou senom ũa lima de aceiro “he found only a steel file”) and still in the dictionaries of Barbosa and Pereira in the 17th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The early dictionaries translate aço with Latin chalybs.^[12][13][14] Bluteau (1712–1728) describes it as iron of the best temper, hard and penetrating enough for the edges and points of swords, and explains how it was made by repeated melting and quenching.^[15]

By extension the word named any blade or bladed weapon, a use the old Aulete illustrates with Camões's ferro e aço.^[16][2] Figurative de aço “very strong, unyielding” (nervos de aço, coração de aço) and the sense “vigour, energy” followed, as did the technical sense “mercury and tin amalgam that makes a mirror reflect”.^[2][16] Figueiredo (1899) already lists the blade, strength and the mirror amalgam.^[17] Brazilian informal speech uses aço for sugar-cane spirit, cachaça, and in the Azores it means will, disposition or patience.^[2][1]

Timeline

• before 1279 – first record of aço.^[2]
• 14th century – aceiro, the older word for steel, in a fable collection.^[8]
• 15th century – the spelling azo.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates Aço as Latin calybs.^[12]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes how steel is made.^[15]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists the senses “blade”, “strength” and “mirror amalgam”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. steel, an alloy of iron and carbon that hardens when tempered: uma ponte de aço.^[2][18][1] aço inoxidável “stainless steel”.^[2][18][1]
2. The blade of a bladed weapon; by extension any knife, sword or dagger.^[2][19]
3. The amalgam of mercury and tin applied to glass to make a mirror.^[2][20]
4. (figurative) Anything hard and unyielding.^[2][20] de aço “very strong, firm”: uma vontade de aço.^[2][20]
5. (figurative) Physical strength, vigour, energy.^[2][18]
6. (Brazil, informal) Sugar-cane spirit, cachaça.^[2][1]
7. (Azores) Will, disposition, patience.^[1]

Related words

• aceiro
• Latin aciēs
• Spanish acero

Usage notes

Houaiss, Aurélio and Wiktionary also record a separate Brazilian adjective aço “albino”, the masculine of aça and a back-formation from it.^{[2][18][1][21]} Schlee describes it in the south of Brazil for a Black or mixed-race person with yellowish hair and light eyes and for an albino horse.^{[2][18][1][21]} Aço sounds the same as asso “I roast”, from assar.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. aço
3. ^ a b Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. aço
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. aço
5. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. aceiro
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. aceiro
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. aciarium
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aço
13. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aço
14. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aço
15. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aço
16. ^ a b c 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. aço
17. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 20
18. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. aço
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. aço
20. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 187
21. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. aço