argila

Forms

argila f (plural argilas)^[1] Houaiss records the 15th-century spelling arzila.^[2] Morais in 1813, Vieira and Figueiredo spelt the word argilla, and Figueiredo in 1899 already refers argila to it.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin argilla (“potter's clay”), which is from Ancient Greek ἄργιλλος (árgillos, “white clay, potter's earth”).^[2][6][7][1] The 15th-century form Old Galician-Portuguese arzila has a ⟨z⟩ like the old pronunciation of Spanish arcilla.^[2][8][9] Machado holds instead that Portuguese took the word from French argile, and he leaves open whether old personal and place names in ⟨Argil-⟩ belong here.^[10]

The same Latin word is Catalan argila, Italian argilla and Galician arxila, and the REW lists the Portuguese word among its outcomes.^[11][12][1]

The Greek noun is generally derived from ἀργός (argós, “brilliant white”), but Beekes notes that its suffix may not be Indo-European and that a substrate word is quite possible, since the meaning does not point clearly to “white”.^[13] The DHLF relates it to the root of argentum (“silver”).^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo antedates Machado's record of 1813 with a text of the Frades Menores, where a place is shown honde estava arzila bramca “where there was white clay”.^[8][10] Houaiss dates arzila to the 15th century.^[2] The adjective argilloso “clayey” appears in the 16th century in Frei Roque do Soveral, of the ground where water is found.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's Latin–Portuguese dictionary of 1562 renders Latin argila by barro “clay”.^[15] Morais in 1813 describes a sticky earth that mixes with water, hardens in the fire and is made into vessels, and refers to greda.^[3] Vieira in 1871 treats it as a term of geology for what common speech calls barro.^[4] The modern dictionaries define it by its silicates of aluminium and give the figurative sense “frailty”, the clay of which, in the Bible, the first man was made.^{[2][7][16][17]}

Timeline

• 15th century – first record, spelt arzila.^[2][8]
• 16th century – first record of the adjective argilloso.^[10]
• 1562 – Cardoso renders Latin argila by Portuguese barro.^[15]
• 1813 – Morais enters argilla.^[3][10]
• 1871 – Vieira derives argilla from Greek argillos, from argos “white”.^[4]
• 1899 – Figueiredo makes argila a variant of argilla.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. clay, a fine-grained earthy material made mainly of hydrated silicates of aluminium, plastic when wet; barro: uma taça de argila.^{[2][7][16][1]}
2. This material as worked by potters and sculptors.^[7][16][18]
3. (figurative) frailty, the brittle nature of the human being.^{[7][17][19][16]}
4. argila gorda: clay rich in alumina, very plastic;^[2][20] argila magra: clay in which silica predominates.^[2][20]

Word family

• argiloso

Related words

• greda
• barro
• Latin argilla
• Spanish arcilla

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. argila
3. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 177
4. ^ 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, 547
5. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 124
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. argila
7. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. argila
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. arzila
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 317
10. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. argila
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 641
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
13. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ἄργιλλος
14. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. argile
15. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1562), Dictionarium juventuti studiosae admodum frugiferum, Coimbra: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. argila
16. ^ a b c d 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. argila
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. argila
18. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. argila
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 887
20. ^ 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. argila