areia

Forms

areia f (plural areias)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote arena, arẽa and area;^[2][3][4] Houaiss also records area in 1344 and areea in the 15th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin arēna (“sand”), written Old Galician-Portuguese arẽa in the oldest texts.^[3][2][5][1] The Latin -n- between vowels was lost, as Vieira noted in 1871, comparing ceia and veia.^[6] The same Latin word was later borrowed as the learned doublet arena, first for the sanded floor of the Roman amphitheatre;^[3][2] Cunha takes this form from Spanish and dates it to 1813.^[3][2]

The same Latin word is Galician area, Spanish arena, Catalan arena, Old French areine, Italian arena and Romanian arină.^[7][8][1]

De Vaan heads the Latin word harēna, records the variant asena and a Sabine form quoted by Varro, and finds no etymology for it.^[9] Wiktionary reconstructs an earlier *hasēna, perhaps from Etruscan.^[1] Figueiredo's dictionary of 1899 derived it from Latin āreō (“to be dry”), a view of its time.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria have arẽa several times: a ship found chẽa d'agua volta con arẽa, “full of water mixed with sand”, and men digging into a great hill of sand.^[4] The Crónica Troiana uses area for the sand of the shore.^[4] A place name Arealva, “white sand”, is already recorded in the royal inquiries of 1258.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the medieval texts on, the plural as areas do mar “the sands of the sea” stood for a countless number.^[4][5] Vieira (1871–1874) lists the beach and the shore among the extended senses, and Figueiredo (1899) adds any fine dust, the gravel of the urine and, informally, foolishness.^[6][10] In Portugal areia still means a lack of sense, and in Brazil something that is muita areia para o caminhão of someone is too good for that person.^[3][11]

The adjective and masculine noun for a pale greyish beige are modern.^[3][12] The word passed to the Portuguese creoles as Kabuverdianu areia and Guinea-Bissau Creole reia.^[1]

Timeline

• 1258 – the place name Arealva in the royal inquiries.^[5]
• 13th century – arẽa in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][2]
• 13th century – first record of arẽal.^[2]
• 1344 – the spelling area.^[3]
• 14th century – as arẽas do mar in a text quoted by J. J. Nunes.^[5]
• 1813 – first record of the learned doublet arena.^[2]
• 1871 – Vieira explains the loss of the Latin -n-.^[6]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the informal sense “foolishness”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. sand, the loose mass of fine grains of rock found on beaches, in riverbeds and in deserts: um saco de areia.^[3][12][1]
2. The beach (praia).^[3][12]
3. Any fine powder (pó) or dust.^[3][12]
4. (medicine) Small chalky grains in the urine; gravel.^[3][12]
5. (construction) The fine aggregate of soils and concrete.^[3][12]
6. (Portugal, informal) Lack of sense; foolishness; a silly act or remark.^[3][11]
7. A very pale greyish beige (bege), the colour of sand; as an adjective, of that colour.^[3][12]

Word family

• areal
• areeiro
• areento
• arear
• arenoso
• arneiro

Related words

• arena
• arenito
• arenáceo
• Latin arēna
• Galician area

Usage notes

Set phrases include areia movediça “quicksand”, edificar na areia “to build on sand”, semear na areia “to labour in vain” and fazer cordas de areia “to attempt the impossible”.^[3][11] Brazilian informal speech says something is muita areia para o caminhão of someone when it is beyond that person's reach.^[3]

Aurélio also records areia with an open /ɛ/, the feminine of aréu, a different word.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. areia
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. areia
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. area
5. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. areia
6. ^ a b c 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, 542
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 630
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
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. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 123
11. ^ 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. areia
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. areia