batalha

Forms

batalha f (plural batalhas)^[1] Houaiss records the spellings batalia (1258, as a surname), batala and bathalha (14th century) and batalha (1572).^[2] The medieval texts edited in the DDGM write batalla.^[3]

Etymology

Cunha takes it as borrowed from Old Occitan batalha, itself from Late Latin battalia, a variant of battualia (“fencing”).^[4] Houaiss traces it directly to batt(u)alia (“combat, fight”) of Medieval Latin.^[2] Meyer-Lübke's REW instead has the Portuguese word from Catalan batalla by way of Spanish batalla,^[5][6] while Wiktionary treats it as an inherited word, through Old Galician-Portuguese batalla.^[1] Machado notes that the old military sense “line of an army drawn up for battle” is also French, and that the word may have come to Portuguese from there.^[7] For Spanish the DCECH argues that a native development would have given *bataja, so that the Spanish word must come from Occitan or from the Latin of Gaul.^[8]

The Late Latin word is the old neuter plural of an adjective derived from battuō (“to beat, strike”).^[8][1] The plural is recorded in the 4th century for fencing exercises, and the variant without -u- from the 5th–6th centuries.^[9] The same word is Galician batalla, Occitan batalha, French bataille, Italian battaglia and Romanian bătaie, the last meaning “blows, a beating”.^[5][3]

The Latin verb is rare in literature and was probably a popular word; the OLD marks it as Gaulish.^[10][1] Wiktionary considers it perhaps Gaulish or Germanic, from *bʰedʰh₂- (“to stab, dig”) or from an imitative root *bʰat- (“to hit”), and compares Welsh bathu (“to beat”) and Old English beadu (“battle”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is a surname in a Latin text of the royal inquiries of 1258, Martinus Batalia.^[7][2] As a Galician-Portuguese word it appears in the Cantigas de Santa Maria: o conde de Peiteus quis batall' aver / con Rey de França “the Count of Poitiers wanted to give battle to the King of France”.^[3] In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda it heads a poem in the sense “fight, encounter”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Besides the fight itself, the medieval and early modern language used the word for a body of troops.^[2][7] Viterbo records that it once meant a whole army, with its vanguard, centre and rearguard.^[12] Machado quotes a 15th-century chronicle in which the batalhas of each side are drawn up for the day of combat.^[7] Morais in 1789 still gives both the battle between two armies or fleets and the old sense “centre of an army, between the vanguard and the rearguard”.^[13] Houaiss marks these senses, and that of a squadron of a fleet, as obsolete.^[2]

From the 14th century Portuguese formed the verb batalhar and batalhador;^[4] batalhão “battalion” came in the 17th century from French bataillon, a word of Italian origin.^[4] The figurative senses, a great effort, a struggle and a heated controversy, were in the dictionaries by the 19th century.^[14][2] Brazil gave the name to a tree of the laurel family, and batalha de confete is a carnival game in which revellers throw confetti at each other.^[2][15] The town of Batalha in Portugal is named after the monastery that commemorates the battle of Aljubarrota.^[1][7] Papiamentu has bataya.^[1]

Timeline

• 1258 – a Latin record of the royal inquiries names Martinus Batalia.^[7]
• 13th century – batall' aver “to give battle” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][4]
• 14th century – the spellings batala and bathalha, and the first batalhar and batalhador.^[2][4]
• 1406 – mestre da obra da batalha, the master builder of the monastery of Batalha.^[7]
• 1416 – first record in the CTA, in the Vida do Cativo Monge Confesso.^[16]
• 15th century – a chronicle uses batalhas for the divisions of an army.^[7]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders Batalha by Latin praelium.^[17]
• 1572 – first record of the spelling batalha.^[2]
• 17th century – batalhão is borrowed from French.^[4]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau derives the word from a Latin verb “to beat”.^[18]
• 1789 – Morais gives both “battle” and “centre of an army”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A battle, a combat between armed forces on land, at sea or in the air: A batalha durou três dias.^[2][15][1]
2. (historical) A body of troops drawn up for combat; each of the squadrons of a fleet.^[2][12]
3. An exchange of blows; a fight or duel.^[2]
4. (figurative) A great effort, a struggle: a batalha de cada dia.^[2][19]
5. (figurative) A heated dispute or controversy; a hard-fought sporting contest.^[2][19]
6. A card game for two players.^[2][20]
7. (Brazil, botany) A tall tree of the laurel family (Nectandra robusta), with yellowish timber of poor quality.^[2][15]

Word family

• batalhar
• batalhador
• batalhante

Related words

• batalhão
• bater
• combate
• Latin battuō
• Spanish batalla

Usage notes

Common set phrases are batalha campal “pitched battle” and batalha naval “naval battle”.^[2] Batalha is also a Portuguese surname, and the name of a town in the district of Leiria.^[21][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. batalha
3. ^ 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. batalla
4. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. batalha
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 995
6. ^ 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. batalha
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. batalha
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 541
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. bataille
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. battuō
11. ^ 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. batalha
12. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 185
13. ^ 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, 172
14. ^ 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, 740
15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. batalha
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. batalha
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. batalha
18. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. batalha
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. batalha
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. batalha
21. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. batalha