bainha

Forms

bainha f (plural bainhas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vāgīna (“sheath, scabbard”), written Old Galician-Portuguese baynha in the oldest texts and Old Galician-Portuguese beyna in the Crónica Geral.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Cunha also records Old Galician-Portuguese veyna in the 15th century, and Houaiss records Old Galician-Portuguese vainha.^[3][2]

The /ɡ/ between vowels was lost and the /n/ of the ending became palatal, written ⟨nh⟩, both regular changes; the change of the initial /v/ to /b/ is rarer, and Vieira compares bexiga from vēsīca and bodo from vōtum.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Galician vaíña, Spanish vaina, Catalan beina, Occitan gaina, French gaine and Italian guaina.^[8][1] The French and Italian initial /ɡw/ is put down to Germanic influence.^[1][9] The Spanish word is recorded from 1155 and was long pronounced with three syllables, as baína.^[10] Houaiss and Wiktionary give vagem “pod” the same origin, and the REW asks whether it belongs here; baunilha “vanilla” comes from the Spanish diminutive vainilla.^{[2][1][8][11]} The anatomical term is a learned doublet.^[1]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear: de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *wāg-īnā- and calls the comparison with Lithuanian vóžti (“to cover”) a gratuitous proposal.^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a cantiga d'escarnho of Afonso X, nunca cinga espada cõ bõa baynha “may he never gird on a sword with a good scabbard”.^[5][13] The Crónica Geral has tirou muyto agina a espada da beyna “he drew the sword from its sheath very quickly”.^[5] A 14th-century text quoted by Machado describes a sword set in a stone and a scabbard lying near it.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “sheath of a sword or knife” is the original one, and the word was soon used of any case of that shape: a 15th-century poem quoted by Machado has baynhas de coyro “leather sheaths”.^[4][3] Folqman (1755) has the sewing sense “hem”, and Morais (1789) the pod of a legume, with the proverbs não caber nas bainhas “not to fit in one's sheath, to think too much of oneself” and não cortar as bainhas “to know little”.^[14][15] The pod sense is still alive in Brazilian dialects, for the bean pod and the maize ear.^[16]

Bluteau used bainha for the vanilla pod, after the Spanish name, and the first Caldas Aulete still lists that sense as an old Castilianism.^[17][18] Figueiredo records, for the Alentejo, bainhas as a sweet of chickpeas wrapped in pastry in the shape of a pod.^[19] The anatomical and botanical senses (the sheath of a muscle or nerve, the base of a leaf that wraps the stem) belong to the modern scientific language.^[2][20]

Timeline

• 13th century – baynha in a cantiga d'escarnho of Afonso X.^[5][2]
• 14th century – the spellings bainha and beyna.^[2][3]
• 15th century – the spellings veyna and vainha.^[3][2]
• 1513 – baynha in the Livro dos Mártires.^[21]
• 16th century – first record of desembainhar.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin vagina.^[22]
• 1755 – Folqman records the sewing sense “hem”.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais records the sense “pod” and two proverbs.^[15]
• 1813 – first record of bainheiro, the name of a plant.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sheath or scabbard of leather, wood or metal for the blade of a sword or knife: Meteu o punhal na bainha.^[2][20][1]
2. A hem, a fold sewn along the edge of cloth so that it does not fray.^[2][20][1]
3. (anatomy) A tissue that wraps an organ or structure, such as a muscle or nerve.^[2][20]
4. (botany) The widened base of a leaf that wraps the stem.^[2][20]
5. (botany) The layer of mucilage round the filaments of many algae.^[2][20]
6. (botany) A pod, vagem.^[23][24]
7. (vulgar) The vulva.^[25]

Word family

• embainhar
• desembainhar
• abainhar
• bainhar
• bainheiro

Related words

• vagem
• vagina
• baunilha
• Latin vāgīna
• Galician vaíña
• Spanish vaina

Usage notes

Dalgado records a separate bainha or banha, the title of a high official in Pegu, from Burmese; his first quotation is of 1546.^[26]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. bainha
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. bainha
4. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. bainha
5. ^ a b c d 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. baynha
6. ^ 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, 705
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. bainha
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9122
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. gaine
10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 732
11. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. vainilla
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ 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. bainha
14. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bainha
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 58
16. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. bainha
17. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bainha
18. ^ 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. bainha
19. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. bainha
20. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. bainha
21. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. baynha
22. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bainha
23. ^ 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. bainha
24. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1211
25. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. bainha
26. ^ Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 1, 81