alho

Forms

alho m (plural alhos)^[1] A document of 1278 writes alyo; the Elucidário records the spelling alios in a document of the same year from Pendorada.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin allium (“garlic”), written Old Galician-Portuguese alho in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] Machado notes that the older Latin spelling was ālium, with ⟨allium⟩ the more recent spelling, and that the grammarian Porphyrio regarded a form ⟨aleum⟩ as vulgar.^[3] De Vaan dates the spelling ⟨allium⟩ to inscriptions from the 1st century AD onwards.^[5] Vieira explains the ⟨lh⟩ as the usual softening of the Latin double ⟨ll⟩.^[6]

The same Latin word is Galician allo, Spanish ajo, Catalan all, Occitan alh, French ail and Italian aglio.^[7][1]

The Latin word has no accepted etymology: de Vaan mentions a speculative derivation from āla (“wing”), the bulb being split into “wings”, and a Greek gloss that may come from another Italic language.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1254, lists garlic among goods brought by river, de caruam e de alhos e de çebollas “of charcoal and of garlic and of onions”.^[8] Machado quotes a text of 1269 in the chancery register of Afonso III that charges two pence for a horse-load dos allos ou das Cebolas “of garlic or onions”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the cantigas d'escarnho garlic is plain food: Airas Perez Vuitoron mentions lombo de vinh' e d'alhos, loin cooked in wine and garlic.^[8] A cantiga already has the proverb o que perdeu nos alhos quer cobrar nas cebolas “what he lost on the garlic he wants to recover on the onions”.^[9] Bluteau in 1712 notes that Galen called garlic the Triaga dos Rusticos, the theriac of peasants, and lists its medical uses.^[10] Morais in 1813 adds alho mourisco and alho íngreme or virgem, a bulb of a single clove.^[11]

From the sharp smell came the popular sense “a clever, sharp person”, recorded by Figueiredo in 1899 and still current in the phrase esperto como um alho.^[12][13][14] In northern Portugal the word was also used for the bulb of tulips, dahlias and hyacinths.^[13] Portuguese passed the word to Kabuverdianu (adju), and to Chichewa (adyo), Makhuwa (alyu) and Yoruba (ayù).^[1]

Timeline

• 1254 – de alhos e de çebollas in a document of goods brought by river.^[8]
• 1269 – a text in the chancery register of Afonso III has allos.^[3]
• 1278 – the spelling alyo.^[2]
• 1496 – the Regimento proveitoso contra a pestenença has the word.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses Alho with Latin allium.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds alhada, a dish made with garlic.^[17]
• 1712 – Bluteau describes the plant and its medical uses.^[10]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the popular sense “a clever man”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. garlic, the plant Allium sativum of the onion family, grown for its strong-smelling bulb; also other species of the genus Allium.^[2][18][1]
2. The bulb of this plant, made up of cloves (dentes) and used to season food: uma cabeça de alho.^[2][18][1]
3. (figurative, informal) A sharp, quick-witted person.^[18][14][19]

Word family

• alhada
• alheira
• alho-francês
• alho-porro

Related words

• Galician allo
• Spanish ajo

Usage notes

Misturar alhos com bugalhos “to mix garlic with oak galls” means to confuse things that have nothing in common, and falar alhos, responder bugalhos to answer something other than what was asked.^[18][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. alho
3. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. alho
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. alho
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ 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, 305
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 366
8. ^ a b c 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. alho
9. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. alho
10. ^ 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. alho
11. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 94
12. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. alho
13. ^ 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. alho
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. alho
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. alho
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. alho
17. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. alho
18. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. alho
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 463