arroio

Forms

arroio m (plural arroios)^[1] Houaiss records arroyo in the 14th century and the old form roio in 1727.^[2] Morais (1813) considered arroyo the better spelling.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *arrugium, a Hispanic Latin masculine beside arrugia (“mine gallery”).^{[2][4][5][6][1]} Latin charters from the north-west write the word arrugium, arrogio and aroio from the 10th century.^[5][7] Pliny, describing the gold mines of Hispania, says that the long galleries cut into the mountains are called by this name; the word is thought to be pre-Roman and local, and Houaiss calls its origin disputed.^[5][2][8] Corominas infers from Pliny that the Romance word first meant an artificial channel for water and only later a stream.^[9]

The same word is Spanish arroyo and Galician arroio.^[10][9] Corominas compares Basque arroil “ditch, gorge” and feminine forms in south-western France meaning “irrigation ditch”.^[9] The REW adds northern Italian words for a drainage ditch, such as Venetian roza, but doubts that they belong with the Ibero-Romance ones.^[10]

The further origin of the Latin word is unknown: Lewis and Short connected it with runcō (“to weed”) and Ancient Greek ὀρύσσω (orússō, “to dig”), and Adams has suggested a Punic origin.^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears first inside Latin charters: 908 iuxta arrogio “by the stream” in the territory of Braga, 944 per arogio que discurre “along the stream that runs”, and 977 per ille aroio qui discurre de illa lagona “along the stream that runs from the pool”.^[7][5] Cunha dates the first Portuguese record to the 13th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “brook” has not changed since the charters.^[7][4] Morais (1813) adds figurative uses, arroios de lágrimas and de sangue, and Vieira defines it broadly as any running liquid.^[3][12] Modern dictionaries in Portugal stress that the stream need not run all year.^[13][14]

In Rio Grande do Sul and the River Plate region, where Spanish arroyo is used in the same way, the word names a fair-sized watercourse fed by springs and smaller streams and flowing into a river;^[15] Schlee notes that it is not a synonym of regato or córrego there.^[15]

Timeline

• 908 – iuxta arrogio in a Latin charter of the territory of Braga.^[7]
• 977 – per ille aroio in a Latin charter.^[5][7]
• 13th century – first Portuguese record.^[4]
• 14th century – the spelling arroyo.^[2]
• 1727 – the old form roio.^[2]
• 1813 – Morais records figurative arroios de lágrimas and the plant name arroios.^[3]
• 1871 – Vieira defines it as any running liquid.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small stream of water, permanent or not; a brook, regato: Atravessaram o arroio a pé.^{[2][6][13][1]}
2. (by extension) A small flow of any liquid: um arroio de suor.^[2][16]
3. (southern Brazil) A watercourse of fair length and flow, fed by springs and smaller streams, that runs into a river.^[15]

Related words

• regato
• ribeiro
• Spanish arroyo
• Galician arroio

Usage notes

Houaiss, Aulete and Priberam also list arroio (in Morais arroios) as a name of garden orache, Atriplex hortensis.^{[2][16][17][3]} Nascentes reports that Aulete derived this plant name from French arroche.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. arroio
3. ^ a b c d Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 196
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. arroio
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. arroio
6. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. arroio
7. ^ 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. arroio
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. arrugia
9. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 359
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 678
11. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. arrugia
12. ^ 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, 582
13. ^ 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. arroio
14. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. arroio
15. ^ a b c Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. arroio
16. ^ 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. arroio
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. arroio
18. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. arroio