arco

Forms

arco m (plural arcos)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote arco and, in the 14th century, also arquo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin arcus (“bow; arch”), written Old Galician-Portuguese arco in the oldest texts.^{[2][4][5][6][1]} Houaiss and Machado also give the Latin variant arquus, and Houaiss notes that from early on the word was associated with arca (“chest”) and arceō (“to hold off, keep away”).^[2][5]

The same Latin word is Galician arco, Spanish arco, Catalan arc, French arc, Italian arco and Romanian arc.^[7][8][1]

According to de Vaan the Latin noun goes back to *arkuos, and matches a Germanic word for “arrow”, *arhwō (Gothic 𐌰𐍂𐍈𐌰𐌶𐌽𐌰 (arƕazna), Old English earh), so that it may have been a word shared by Italic and Germanic; he connects both with Greek and Balto-Slavic words for juniper and willow trees, from which bows were made.^[9] Wiktionary takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂erkʷo- (“bow, arrow”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters already have the word as a place name, Arcus in 911 according to Houaiss and in 943 according to Machado (in uilla de arcus).^[2][5] As a Portuguese word it is dated to the 13th century, in the sense of the weapon for shooting arrows;^[2][4] Cunha dates the geometrical sense “part of a curve” to the 14th century.^[2][4] The DDGM quotes a cantiga d'amigo of Fernand' Esquio, in which the girl's friend goes by the lake seu arco na maão “his bow in his hand” to shoot birds.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th-century chronicles the word already means the arch of a bridge or a church as well as the bow (arco torqui, a Turkish bow), and the rainbow, o arco do çeo “the arch of the sky”; a Bible translation calls the rainbow o arco das velhas.^[3] Bluteau (1712–1728) explains this arco da velha with Heitor Pinto as the sign of peace God set in the clouds under the Old Law (Ley velha), and the learned name arco-íris is recorded from 1813.^[11][4]

Later senses name other curved things: the bow of a violin, the hoop of a barrel or a drum, a child's hoop driven with a stick, the round brackets of writing (from 1813), and in football the goal.^[2][12] In Portuguese of Portugal it is also a ring.^[2]

Timeline

• 911 – Arcus as a place name in a Latin charter, according to Houaiss.^[2]
• 943 – in uilla de arcus in a Latin charter.^[5]
• 1200s – first record as the weapon, in the cantigas.^[2][4][3]
• 14th century – the geometrical sense, and arquo for the bow.^[2][4]
• 14th century – the arch of a bridge, o arco da ponte, in the Crónica Geral.^[3]
• c. 1450 – arco in the Livro das tres vertudes.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau explains arco da velha for the rainbow.^[11]
• 1813 – first records of arco-íris and of the sense “bracket” in writing.^[4][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bow, the weapon made of a flexible rod bent by a string, for shooting arrows.^[2][14][1]
2. Anything curved like a bow.^[2]
3. (geometry) A segment of a curve between two points.^[2][4]
4. (architecture) An arch, a curved structure spanning an opening.^[2][1]
5. (music) The bow of a stringed instrument such as the violin.^[2][1]
6. The hoop of a barrel or a drum.^[2]
7. A children's hoop, rolled along with a stick.^[2][1]
8. (football) The goal.^[2]
9. (Portugal) A ring.^[2]

Word family

• arco-íris
• arco-da-velha
• arquear
• arqueado
• arqueiro
• arqueação

Related words

• arciforme
• arcada
• Latin arcus
• Galician arco

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 t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. arco
3. ^ a b c d e 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. arco
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. arco
5. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. arco
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. arco
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 618
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 41
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. arco
11. ^ 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. arco
12. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. arco
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. arco
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. arco