acolá

Forms

acolá^[1] A 15th-century text quoted by Machado spells it acollá.^[2] Bluteau reports that Duarte Nunes de Leão wanted the word written aquolá.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum illāc (“lo, there”), written Old Galician-Portuguese acola in the 13th century.^[4][5][1] The Latin phrase joins eccum (“here he is!”) and illāc (“that way, there”).^[1] The OLD explains the first as ecce (“behold”) with, probably, an old accusative of hic (“this”).^[6] Houaiss notes that this reinforcing word probably became *accu- in Vulgar Latin under the influence of atque (“and”) or ac, which accounts for the initial ⟨a-⟩.^[4]

The same phrase gave Galician acolá and Spanish acullá.^[1][7][8] Wiktionary also compares Romanian acolo.^[1] The reinforced pronoun is found again in aquele, from Vulgar Latin *accu ille, while lá comes from Latin ad with the same adverb, through the old form Old Galician-Portuguese alá.^[9][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria already use it for a distant place, as in levade-m' acolá / o ést' o que seerá / meu marid’ “take me over there, to the one who is to be my husband”, and enquant' el foi acolá / aa ost’ “while he was away there with the army”.^[12][1] Houaiss and Cunha both date the word to the 13th century.^[4][5] Machado quotes a 15th-century line, Nom acollá em na outra vida mais aquy “not over there in the other life but here”, and mentions a 14th-century reading in a poem of D. Afonso Sanches, which he considers doubtful.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has hardly changed since the Middle Ages.^[5][4] Bluteau separated two uses: “to that place”, with movement, which he rendered with Latin illuc, and “in that place”, without it, rendered illic.^[3] Morais defined it in 1789 as the distant place one points at, where neither the speaker nor the person addressed is.^[13] Vieira showed it with and without movement, after the prepositions de, para and por, and set against cá and aqui, with quotations from Fernão Mendes Pinto, Bernardim Ribeiro and Manuel Bernardes.^[14]

In Brazilian speech it is still used in the series aqui, ali, acolá for “here, there and everywhere”.^[15] The Galician dictionary of Estraviz has the same pairing aqui e acolá “everywhere”.^[16]

Timeline

• 13th century – acolá in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[12][4]
• 15th century – acollá in a prose text quoted by Machado.^[2]
• 1562 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary lists Acolâ.^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau distinguishes the senses with and without movement.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as a place away from both speaker and hearer.^[13]
• 1871 – Vieira sets it against cá and aqui.^[14]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Over there, yonder: in a place away from both the speaker and the person spoken to: A igreja fica acolá, depois da ponte.^{[4][18][19][1]}
2. To that place; further on, beyond: Vamos até acolá e voltamos.^{[4][20][21][1]}

Related words

• aquele
• lá
• Latin eccum
• Latin illāc
• Galician acolá
• Spanish acullá

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. acolá
3. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. acolá
4. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. acolá
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. acolá
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. acullá
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. eccum
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. aquele
10. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lá
11. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lá
12. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. acolá
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 19
14. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 1, 107
15. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. acolá
16. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. acolá
17. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. acolá
18. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. acolá
19. ^ 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. acolá
20. ^ 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. acolá
21. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 192