barba

Forms

barba f (plural barbas)^[1] Medieval texts write barba and barva (barua); Machado considers barva the commoner form of the old language.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin barba (“beard”), written Old Galician-Portuguese barva and Old Galician-Portuguese barba in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes explains the return of ⟨b⟩ in the middle of the word by assimilation to the first consonant, or by a restoration of the Latin form.^[5]

The same Latin word is Galician barba, Spanish barba, Catalan barba, French barbe, Italian barba and Romanian barbă.^[6][1]

The Latin noun goes back to *farðā, from *bʰardʰéh₂ (“beard”).^[1] De Vaan writes the Proto-Italic form *farfā-, and compares Lithuanian barzdà, Old High German bart and Old English beard.^[7] An inherited word would have begun with /f/; the initial /b/ is usually put down to assimilation to the following /b/.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin document of 1250 already has the byname Pelagius baruas.^[3] The first vernacular record is a legal text dated 1228: si alguun uiçino seu uiçino firir da barba ata los pees “if any neighbour strikes his neighbour from the beard to the feet”.^[4] The Chronicle of 1344 has o Cide pos a maão pella barba “the Cid put his hand to his beard”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Miragres de Santiago already use fazer barba for “to shave”.^[4] The sense “chin”, which Houaiss and Bluteau give, is shared by Spanish and much of Italy, and Corominas thinks it very old.^[2][8][6][9] Morais (1789) records phrases such as fazer as barbas “to shave” and lançar o gato às barbas a alguém “to give someone trouble”.^[10]

The word was extended to beard-like things: the hair on an animal's muzzle, the barbs of a feather, the plates in a whale's mouth, the beard of an ear of grain and the fibres of a root.^[2][11] Sranan Tongo took barba from Portuguese.^[1]

Timeline

• 1228 – firir da barba ata los pees in a legal text.^[4]
• 1250 – the byname Pelagius baruas in a Latin document.^[3]
• 1344 – a chronicle has pella barba.^[4]
• 1443 – Machado's first record of the spelling barba.^[3]
• 1562 – Cardoso's dictionary renders Latin barba by a barba.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists barba, barbinha, barbado and barba de bode.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais defines the word as the lower part of the face and the hair that grows there.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The beard, the hair growing on a man's chin and cheeks (also in the plural): Deixou crescer a barba.^[2][14][1]
2. The part of the face below the lower lip; the chin.^[2][14]
3. (zoology) The hair or feathers on the muzzle of some mammals or at the base of the beak of some birds.^[2][15]
4. (zoology) Each of the side filaments of a feather, a barb.^[2][16]
5. (zoology, in the plural) The baleen plates of a whale; barbatana.^[2][15]
6. (botany) Fine bristly filaments of a plant, such as the silk of maize.^[14][16]

Word family

• barbado
• barbear
• barbeiro
• barbudo

Related words

• barbicha
• imberbe
• Latin barba

Usage notes

Fazer a barba means “to shave”, and barba a barba “face to face”.^[16]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. barba
3. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. barba
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. barba
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 62
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 944
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. barba
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. barba
10. ^ 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, 166
11. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. barba
12. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1562), Dictionarium juventuti studiosae admodum frugiferum, Coimbra: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. barba
13. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. barba
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. barba
15. ^ a b 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. barba
16. ^ a b c 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. barba