betume

Forms

betume m (plural betumes)^[1] The spelling bitume is recorded from the 14th century and is common in the 16th;^[2][3][4] Houaiss notes that the two spellings run through the derivatives too.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

According to Wiktionary and Machado it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *bittūmen, from Latin bitūmen (“pitch, asphalt”).^[1][4] Houaiss instead calls it a learned word taken from the Latin.^[3] Cunha dates it to the 13th century.^[2] It is a doublet of betão.^[1]

The same Latin word is French béton, Occitan betum, Catalan betum, Spanish betún and Italian bitume.^[5][1] Corominas finds Old Spanish betume in the poem of Alexander, and the modern Spanish word came through Catalan.^[6]

De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Indo-European *gʷet-u- (“pitch, resin”), comparing cwidu (“mastic”).^[7] Its first consonant is not the regular Latin outcome of the PIE one, so it was probably borrowed from an Osco-Umbrian language, or perhaps from Celtic.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the second half of the 13th century compare things held fast “as if fixed with birdlime or with pitch” (con visco ou con betume).^[8] In the Crónica Troiana a betume is made of dragon's blood to seal a tomb.^[8] Both use the word for a sticky, sealing substance.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The Latin–Portuguese dictionaries of the 16th and 17th centuries simply translate it as bitumen.^[9][10][11] Bluteau in 1712 described it as a sticky clay like sulphur, citing the asphalt of the Dead Sea.^[12] Morais (1789) added an artificial betume of lime, oil and other ingredients for sealing pipes and joints against water.^[13] The sense “glazier's putty” is dated to 1881.^[3] The scientific sense, a mixture of hydrocarbons such as asphalt, is described at length by Vieira.^[14]

Regional and informal senses are sticky food: overcooked rice in a paste, lard in Madeira, and a thick soup in the Minho.^[3][15] The REW records a Minho sense “litter, bedding”, perhaps influenced by another word.^[5]

Timeline

• 13th century – betume in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[8][2]
• 14th century – the spelling bitume;^[2][4] betume rijo “hard pitch” in a text quoted by Machado.^[2][4]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it as bitumen.^[9]
• 1712 – Bluteau describes natural bitumen.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais adds the artificial sealing paste.^[13]
• 1813 – betumar “to seal with bitumen” is recorded.^[2]
• 1881 – the sense “glazier's putty”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. bitumen, a dark viscous mixture of heavy hydrocarbons, used for waterproofing and road paving; asfalto.^[3][16][1]
2. A paste of pitch, lime, oil and other substances used to seal against water.^[3][17]
3. (carpentry) Glazier's putty, used to fix panes in their frames and fill holes in wood.^[3][18]
4. (informal) Rice cooked until it is sticky.^[3][17]
5. (Madeira) Lard, banha.^[3]
6. (Minho) A thick soup.^[3][15]

Word family

• abetumar
• betumar
• embetumar

Related words

• betão
• Latin bitumen
• Spanish betún
• Galician betume

Usage notes

Michaelis records a separate noun betume in the sense of a temporary fence of thorny branches round a clearing.^[17]

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 g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. betume
3. ^ 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. betume
4. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. betume
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1138
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 577
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. bitumen
8. ^ 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. betume
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. betume
10. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. betume
11. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. betume
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. betume
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, 180
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, 762
15. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. betume
16. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. betume
17. ^ a b c 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. betume
18. ^ 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. betume