asa

Forms

asa f (plural asas)^[1] Houaiss records asaa in the 14th century, then asa, aza and ás in the 15th.^[2] Aza was the usual spelling of the classical period;^[3][1] Pereira's dictionary of 1697 already refers it to asa.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ānsa (“handle of a vessel”), first written Old Galician-Portuguese asaa.^[2][4][1] The Latin /n/ before /s/ had already been lost in popular speech: the Appendix Probi condemns the form asa.^[5][6]

The Latin word for “wing”, Latin āla, gave Old Galician-Portuguese aa, and the handle word took over its sense.^[7][1] Nascentes explains the change by the clash of the wing word with the preposition fused with the article, also written ⟨aa⟩ (now à), and by the likeness of a handle to a wing.^[6] Cornu and Meyer-Lübke instead supposed a double plural, aas with a second plural ending, giving asas, from which a new singular was drawn.^[6] García de Diego, too, puts the Portuguese wing word under the Latin word for “wing”.^[8] Machado rejects any link between the handle word and that plural.^[5]

The same word for “handle” is Galician asa, Spanish asa and Catalan nansa; French anse and Italian ansa are of the same origin.^[9][1] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ens-h₂- (“handle, grip”), cognate with Lithuanian ąsa (“handle of a pot”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado points out an adjective asados “with handles” in a Latin text of 1145, and the noun in a 15th-century letter: bad news flies fast com asas ligeiras “on light wings”.^[5] The older wing word aa is in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, where a falcon breaks a bird's wing with one blow, and in the Crónica Troiana.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates the sense “handle of a utensil” to 1562.^[2] Since then the word has served for both the wing of birds, bats and insects and the handle of a cup, jug or basket.^[2][11] Transferred senses include the sides of the nose, the leaf of a hinge, the sails of a windmill, the side wing of a building, a winged seed, the wing of an aircraft (asa-delta is a hang-glider), and in football a winger.^[2][12] Brazilian informal speech uses it for the arm or shoulder, and in Rio Grande do Sul for the smell of the armpits.^[2]

The word passed into the Portuguese-based creoles of Africa and America: Kabuverdianu ása, Sãotomense and Guinea-Bissau Creole aza and Saramaccan hánza.^[1]

Timeline

• 1145 – the adjective asados in a Latin text.^[5]
• 13th century – aa “wing” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[7][2]
• 14th century – first record of the form asaa.^[2]
• 15th century – asa, aza and ás;^[2][5] asas “wings” in a letter quoted by Machado.^[2][5]
• c. 1450 – the Livro das tres vertudes uses asa.^[13]
• 1562 – first record of the sense “handle”.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira refers aza to asa.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wing of a bird or bat: A gaivota abriu as asas.^[2][11][1]
2. A wing of an insect; a large fin of a flying fish.^[2][11]
3. A handle of a cup, jug, basket or other utensil: Segura a caneca pela asa.^[2][11][1]
4. A side projection of an organ or structure, such as the wings of the nose.^[2][12]
5. (aviation) The wing of an aircraft.^[2][12]
6. (architecture) A side wing of a building; a side aisle of a church.^[2]
7. (figurative) What carries one quickly, as on wings: voar nas asas da fantasia.^[2]
8. (football) A winger.^[2]
9. (Brazil, informal) The arm or shoulder, mostly in the plural.^[2]

Word family

• asa-delta
• asinha
• desasar
• asa-de-telha

Related words

• ala
• alado
• alar
• ansa
• Latin ānsa
• Galician asa

Usage notes

Dar asas à imaginação is to give free rein to the imagination.^[1] Abrir as asas is to lose one's shyness.^[2] Botanical asa-fétida, a gum resin, is a separate word, from Medieval Latin asa foetida, whose first part goes back to Persian azā “mastic”.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. asa
3. ^ a b c Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. aza
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. asa
5. ^ a b c d e f Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. asa
6. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 47
7. ^ 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. aa
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 490
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. asa
12. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. asa
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. asa
14. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 231