balança

Forms

balança f (plural balanças)^[1] Houaiss records ballança in the 14th century and balanca in the 15th.^[2] Feijó in 1734 warns against the spelling balansa.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish balanza (“balance, scales”), from Vulgar Latin *bilancia, derived from Late Latin bilanx (“having two scale-pans”).^{[2][4][5][6][7]} Machado takes the Spanish origin as proved by the ⟨l⟩ between vowels, and the REW too lists the Portuguese word as a loan from Spanish.^[5][8] Wiktionary instead treats it as inherited from the Vulgar Latin word.^[1]

The Vulgar Latin form is not recorded, but Corominas infers it from all the Romance languages: Italian bilancia, French balance, Catalan balança and Occitan balança.^[9][8] He dates the Spanish word to the third quarter of the 13th century, in the Libros del saber de astronomía.^[9]

The Late Latin adjective, recorded from the 4th century AD, replaced classical lībra as the word for the scales; it is formed from Latin bi- (“two”) + lanx (“dish, scale-pan”).^[9][1] Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny connect the second element with Greek words for “bent” and with Ancient Greek λεκάνη (lekánē, “dish, pan”); de Vaan finds the sense “bent” unconvincing for a plate.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's first record is from the Cantigas de Santa Maria, in a figurative sense: e Deus tirarianos desta balança? “and would God take us out of this peril?”.^[5][11] The same cantigas use the word for the pan of a scale, in the miracle of a letter of penance that weighed more en ũa balança than all the goods put in the other.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The medieval language already had both the instrument and the image of a life “in the balance”: the cantigas speak of being en gran balança in the world, in great danger.^[11] Barbosa in 1611 records em balanças “in doubt” and língoa das balanças, the pointer of the scales.^[12] Bluteau distinguishes the scales with two pans from the steelyard with one pan or a hook.^[13]

Later senses are figurative and technical: equilibrium and good judgement, comparison, the symbol of justice, the zodiac sign and constellation Libra, and the trade balance (balança do commercio in Silva Bastos).^[14][2][15] In Amazonian Brazil it is a fishing device of two poles, and in Rio Grande do Sul the weighing place of a jerked-beef works or a shearing shed.^[6][16]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use balança for a scale-pan and for a perilous state.^[5][11]
• 14th century – the spelling ballança.^[2]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) has the word.^[17]
• 15th century – the spelling balanca; first record of balanço.^[2][4]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin trutina and statera.^[18]
• 1611 – Barbosa records em balanças “in doubt”.^[12]
• 1734 – Feijó rejects the spelling balansa.^[3]
• 1871 – Vieira derives the word from Latin bilanx.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. scales, a balance: an instrument for weighing, classically a beam with two pans; any device that measures weight or mass.^[2][6][1]
2. (figurative) Equilibrium (equilíbrio), good judgement, ponderação.^[6][15]
3. (figurative) Comparison, weighing up of differences.^[6][20]
4. The symbol of justice (justiça).^[15][21]
5. (economics) A balance, the comparison of imports and exports: balança comercial.^[7][6]
6. (astronomy, astrology, capitalised) Libra, the constellation and the seventh sign of the zodiac.^[15][7][1]
7. (Brazil, Amazonas) A fishing device: an upright pole on the bank holding another that reaches out over the water.^[6]

Word family

• balançar
• balancear
• balanceado
• balancete
• balanço
• abalançar
• contrabalançar

Related words

• balancê
• libra
• Spanish balanza

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. balança
3. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. balança
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. balança
5. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. balança
6. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. balança
7. ^ a b c 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. balança
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1103
9. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 469
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 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. balança
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. balança
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. balança
14. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. balança
15. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. balança
16. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. 1
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. balança
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. balança
19. ^ 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, 709
20. ^ 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. balança
21. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1218