bispo

Forms

bispo m (plural bispos, feminine bispa, feminine plural bispas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote bispo, biispo and byspo.^[2][3] The older form obispo is recorded from 1182 and was still used in the 15th century.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin episcopus (“overseer; bishop”), written Old Galician-Portuguese bispo in the oldest texts.^[2][5][4][1] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “overseer, guardian”), formed from ἐπι- (epi-, “upon”) and σκοπός (skopós, “watcher”).^[2][6][1]

Houaiss sees the word as a popular form with the first syllable lost, which in the 13th century took the place of Old Galician-Portuguese obispo (12th century).^[2] Cornu, followed by Nascentes and the glossary of the Crónica Geral, explains the steps: an unrecorded *ebispo became the attested form under the influence of the labial /b/, and the initial ⟨o-⟩ was then lost because it was taken for the article.^[7][3] The loss of the vowel after the stress left the cluster ⟨-scp-⟩, which was reduced to two consonants.^[7] The learned epíscopo is the doublet.^[2][1]

The same Latin word is Galician bispo, Spanish obispo, Catalan bisbe, French évêque, Italian vescovo and Romanian piscup.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's earliest record is from 1154, in the Leges;^[4] obispo appears in 1182 in a chancery document known from a 13th-century transcription, Obispo de Coimbra.^[4] A Galician text of 1262 has tirado ende o Bispo de Lugo “except the Bishop of Lugo”.^[3] The Cantigas de Santa Maria tell how the Virgin had a cleric made bispo because he always said her hours.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense has stayed the same since the Middle Ages; the dictionaries from Cardoso (1569) to Morais (1789) gloss the word with Latin episcopus.^[9][10] Bluteau (1712–1728) already records a homely use, o bispo na gallinha, for the uropygium, the rump of a bird, which Houaiss explains by its likeness to a bishop's mitre.^[11][2] Figueiredo (1899) adds the sense of a burnt taste in food and the chess piece.^[12] The phrase deixar entrar o bispo “to let the bishop in” means to let food burn at the bottom of the pan.^[2][13] Today the word also names the leaders of other Christian churches.^[2]

Timeline

• 1154 – the first record Machado gives, in the Leges.^[4]
• 1182 – Obispo de Coimbra in a chancery document, in a 13th-century transcription.^[4]
• 1262 – o Bispo de Lugo in a Galician text.^[3]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use bispo.^[3][2]
• 14th century – bispo in the Trasladação de S. Nicolau.^[14]
• 15th century – obispo is still used.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Bispo as episcopus and pontifex.^[9]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the bird's rump as bispo.^[11]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists the burnt taste in food and the chess piece.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Christianity) A bishop, a priest with the full powers of holy orders who governs a diocese.^[2][13][1]
2. In other Christian churches, a spiritual leader with a similar rank.^[2]
3. (chess) The bishop, a piece that moves diagonally.^[2][15][1]
4. (zoology) The uropygium of certain birds.^[2][13]
5. (informal) The burnt taste of food stuck to the bottom of a pan.^[2][15]

Word family

• bispado
• bispar
• arcebispo

Related words

• epíscopo
• episcopal
• episcopado
• Latin episcopus
• Galician bispo
• Spanish obispo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. bispo
3. ^ 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. bispo
4. ^ a b c d e f g Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. bispo
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. bispo
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. episcopus
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 71
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2880
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bispo
10. ^ 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, 183
11. ^ 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. bispo
12. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 194
13. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. bispo
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. bispo
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. bispo