berço

Forms

berço m (plural berços)^[1] Houaiss records berço and berç in the 13th century.^[2] Feijó in 1734 lists breço beside berço, and Wiktionary gives the variants berce, brece and breço.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old French bers (“cradle”), a word recorded about 1150.^[2][4][5][6] Machado quotes Gonçalves Viana: the etymology is uncertain, but in Portuguese, as in Galician berce, the word seems to be of French origin, since the Spanish word for the cradle is Spanish cuna.^[6] Cunha and Houaiss derive the Old French noun from Vulgar Latin *bertium or *bercium, and Houaiss compares the diminutive Medieval Latin berciolum, recorded in the 8th century, which corresponds to French berceau (1472).^[4][2]

The further origin is uncertain: Houaiss supposes the Latin word linked with a Gaulish root meaning “to shake hard”.^[2] Machado cites Bloch and Wartburg, who derive the French verb bercer (“to rock”) from a Latin of Gaul *bertiō, from the stem Gaulish *bertā- (“to shake”), and adds that the word may have meant “basket”, since cradles were traditionally made of woven wicker.^[6] Wiktionary instead takes the Portuguese word from the French diminutive, and the Gaulish word from Proto-Celtic *bertā, a variant of *bereti (“to carry”), comparing Old Irish bert (“bundle”).^[1] The DHLF too calls the Old French word perhaps Gaulish.^[7] The same root gave Catalan bressol.^[1]

Older dictionaries proposed other sources: Bluteau a Hebrew word for “bed”, Vieira a form Medieval Latin berciolus, and Figueiredo bersa.^[8][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a cantiga of Juião Bolseiro, which Machado dates to the 13th century: non tecen donas, nen har uy teer / berç' ant' o fog' a dona muyt' onrrada “ladies do not weave there, nor did I see the honoured lady keep a cradle by the fire”.^[6][11][12] Lorenzo's chronology of Galician-Portuguese uses this line to antedate Machado's earlier 15th-century date.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau notes that poets call the East the berço of the sun, and quotes Jacinto Freire's rivers that grow larger the farther they flow from the berço where they were born.^[8] He also has abobeda de berço “barrel vault”, named for its likeness to a cradle.^[8] Morais in 1789 adds the source of a river and a short old piece of artillery, a sense Vieira illustrates with João de Barros.^[13][9] Houaiss places these guns in the 15th and 16th centuries, and dates to the 20th century the use of berço for any child's bed, even one that does not rock.^[2]

The shape of a cradle gave the word many technical senses: the support on which a ship is launched, the ink pad of rubber stamps, the holder of a blotter and the rest of a telephone receiver.^[2][5] The derivative berçário “nursery” is a 20th-century word.^[4]

Timeline

• 13th century – berç’ in a cantiga of Juião Bolseiro.^[6][2]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it with Latin cunae.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa has embalar o berço “to rock the cradle”.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the senses “homeland” and “barrel vault”.^[8]
• 1734 – Feijó lists the spelling breço.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais adds “source of a river” and “short cannon”.^[13]
• 20th century – berço for any child's bed, and the derivative berçário.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cradle, a small rocking bed for a baby: Deitou o bebé no berço e embalou-o.^[2][5][1]
2. Any bed for a small child, a crib.^[2]
3. (figurative) Earliest childhood: Conhecemo-nos desde o berço.^[2][5]
4. (figurative) The place or moment where something begins, an origin, also the source of a river.^[2][16]
5. (figurative) A birthplace, homeland: Atenas foi o berço da democracia.^[2][5][1]
6. Any object or structure shaped like a cradle, such as a barrel vault, an ink pad for stamps, a blotter holder or the rest of a telephone receiver.^[2][5]
7. (historical, weaponry) A short cannon of the 15th and 16th centuries.^[2][1]
8. (nautical) A support on which a ship rests or slides when it is launched.^[2][16]
9. (nautical) The ring in the gudgeon of a rudder, in which the pintle turns.^[2][16]

Word family

• berçário

Related words

• Old French bers
• Galician berce
• Catalan bressol
• Spanish cuna

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 m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. berço
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. berço
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. berço
5. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. berço
6. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. berço
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ber
8. ^ a b c d Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. berço
9. ^ a b 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, 758
10. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 186
11. ^ a b 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. berço
12. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. berço
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, 179
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. berço
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. berço
16. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. berço