atol

Forms

atol m (plural atóis)^[1] The oldest Portuguese record has the plural atollons; in 1880 the Conde de Ficalho wrote the English form atolls.^[2][3] Cunha also records the spelling atoll in the 19th century.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Dhivehi އަތޮޅު (atoḷu), the word of the Maldive Islands for such a ring of islands.^[1][5][6] Houaiss takes it from the Maldivian word, probably with the influence of atoll, which goes back to the same source.^[2] Cunha and the DLP instead derive it from the English word.^[4][7] Machado also takes it from English, where he dates the word to 1832, and notes that Darwin made it widely known in 1842.^[5]

Cunha and Dalgado report that Darwin brought the word into international scientific language in his book on coral reefs of 1842.^[4][3] Machado quotes Bloch and Wartburg, who say that French had it in 1611–1845 as attollon, taken from a Portuguese form atollon, but he could not find that Portuguese form himself.^[5]

Dalgado reports Yule's view that the Maldivian word comes from a Sinhalese preposition meaning “inside”, and Cunha follows it.^[3][4] Nascentes, after Lokotsch, notes that the Maldivian language is related to Sinhalese.^[8] Wiktionary instead suggests a Prakrit word going back to a Sanskrit compound meaning “level ford”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dalgado quotes Pyrard de Laval's Viagem on the Maldives: the islands “are divided into thirteen provinces, which they call Atollons”, each separate from the others and containing a great many islets.^[3] Houaiss dates this record to 1615.^[2] The word thus first named the natural divisions of the Maldive archipelago.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In 1858 Cunha Rivara still glossed Atollon as the name of the small island groups of the Maldives.^[3] After Darwin used atoll for every ring-shaped coral formation, the word became a general term of geography and oceanography: Houaiss defines it as an elliptical reef with a central lagoon, formed away from the coast.^[3][2] The Caldas Aulete and Aurélio describe it as a ring of low coral islands round a lagoon, Aurélio as a coral crown built on a volcanic pillar.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 1615 – atollons, the provinces of the Maldives, in Pyrard de Laval's Viagem.^[2][3]
• 1842 – Darwin uses the term in its modern scientific sense.^[4][3]
• 1858 – Cunha Rivara explains Atollon as the small island groups of the Maldives.^[3]
• 1880 – the Conde de Ficalho writes atolls in the Flora dos Lusiadas.^[2][3]
• 1919 – Dalgado's Glossário luso-asiático has the entry atol.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An atoll: a ring-shaped coral reef or ring of low coral islands enclosing a central lagoon.^{[2][10][11][1]}

Related words

• recife
• laguna
• English atoll

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. atol
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 1, 66
4. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. atol
5. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. atol
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. atol
7. ^ 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. atol
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. 52
9. ^ 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. atol
10. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. atol
11. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. atol