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borra

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word borra

borra1 flock, dregs

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1348 a charter listing mattresses stuffed with borra
Inherited from
Latin burra
Ultimate origin
Latin burra
Etymology tree of borra1
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek πῦρ (pûr)
Ancient Greek πυρρός (purrhós)
Latin burrus
Latin burra
French bourre
Italian borra
Portuguese borra
Spanish borra
The journey of borra1
From the same root · borra1
Ancient Greek πυρά (purá) ← πῦρ
Latin burrīcus ← burrus
French bourrer ← burra
French bourru ← bourre

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈbo.ʁɐ/, [ˈbo.hɐ][1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /ˈbo.ʁɐ/, [ˈbo.χɐ][1]
  • Portugal: /ˈbo.ʁɐ/[1]

Forms

borra f (plural borras)[1] This word is pronounced with closed /ô/.[2][3]

Etymology

The word for coarse fibre and dregs is inherited from Latin burra (“coarse woollen cloth”).[2][4][5][6][7][3] In Late Latin the noun named a shaggy garment, and Ausonius used the plural for trifles and nonsense;[8][9] Medieval Latin used it for coarse wool and stuffing.[8][9] Houaiss traces the senses from the cloth to “a coarse thing of no value, a remnant”, which in turn led to the pejorative “something dirty, dark or cloudy”, which gave the sense “dregs”.[2] Both senses, coarse fibre and sediment, belong to this word.[2][4]

The same Latin noun is Galician borra, Spanish borra, Catalan borra, Italian borra and French bourre; only Spanish and Portuguese also use it for yeast and sediment.[10][11][12] Wiktionary derives the Latin noun from burrus (“red”), and the DHLF suggests it is that adjective used as a noun, the adjective being from Ancient Greek πυρρός (purrhós, “reddish”), perhaps through Etruscan.[1][13]

DELPo derives the word instead from borrar, which Houaiss makes a derivative of this noun.[14][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1092 has usque ad illas borras “as far as the borras”, a place name.[5][16] The first vernacular record is a document of 1348 that lists quatro almadraques “four mattresses”, one of cotton and the others of borra, that is, stuffed with flock.[16] Cunha also dates the word to the 14th century.[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “dregs” is in the dictionaries from the start: Cardoso (1569) translates borra with Latin faex “dregs”, Barbosa (1611) adds borras de azeyte “olive-oil lees”, and Bluteau (1712–1728) defines the word as the thick, impure part left at the bottom of a vessel.[17][18][19] Vieira (1871) gives the sediment of ink and oil, the short wool left on a sheepskin, the coarsest part of silk and waste wool from spinning, and figuratively useless words and things.[20] Houaiss dates the sense of short wool on the skin to 1871 and that of the unspun part of a silk cocoon to 1899.[2]

The figurative senses run from “trifle” to “the worst part” and “the dregs of society”, and informally to “diarrhoea”.[2][3][7] Spoken of a person, the word means a worthless or unsociable individual, and the phrase de borra means “good-for-nothing, of the worst quality”.[2][3] In Rio Grande do Sul borra is the short wool, mixed with earth and plant matter, left over from shearing or carding.[21]

Timeline

  • 1092 – a Latin charter has illas borras as a place name.[5][16]
  • 1348 – a charter lists mattresses stuffed with borra.[16]
  • 1569 – Cardoso translates the word as Latin faex “dregs”.[17]
  • 1611 – Barbosa records borras de azeyte.[18]
  • 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines the sediment left in a vessel.[19]
  • 1871 – first record of the sense “short wool on a sheepskin”.[2][20]
  • 1899 – first record of the sense “unspun part of a silk cocoon”.[2][22]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (textiles) The coarsest, thickest part of wool, linen or cotton, used for cheap cloth; flock.[2][23]
  2. Short wool left on a sheepskin.[2]
  3. The part of a silkworm cocoon that is not spun, used for cords and coarse fabrics; silk waste.[2][3][24]
  4. sediment, dregs: the solid matter that settles at the bottom of a liquid or is filtered from it: Deitou fora a borra que ficou no bule.[2][3][7][1]
  5. A trifle, a thing of no value.[2][3][24]
  6. Dirt, filth.[2]
  7. (figurative) The worst part of something; the dregs of society, the rabble, ralé.[2][3][7]
  8. (informal) diarrhoea.[2][7]
  9. (pejorative) A worthless person, borra-botas; an unsociable, rude person.[2]

Word family

  • borrar
  • borra-botas
  • bisbórria
  • borraçal

borra2 bird

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1949–1958 Morais's dictionary, 10th edition

Forms

borra f, pronounced with open /ó/.[2][24]

Etymology

The word for the bird is of obscure origin, according to Houaiss, who records it from the Beira region.[2] Machado enters it as a separate word, a Beira name for a certain small bird, and gives no etymology.[25]

Timeline

  • 1949–1958 – first record, in the 10th edition of Morais's dictionary.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Beira) A small bird, the whinchat (Saxicola rubetra) or the stonechat (Saxicola torquata); cartaxo.[2][25][24]

Usage notes

Aurélio and Michaelis enter the sense “diarrhoea” as a separate word, a back-formation from borrar, and Aurélio distinguishes it from the word with closed /ô/.[3][23] Houaiss counts it as a sense of the first word.[2] Old dictionaries also have borra, in the Alentejo, for the female of borro, a yearling lamb, and an old name for certain lay friars.[26][24][22][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 r s t u v w Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. borra
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. borra
  4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. borra
  5. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. borra
  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. 1, 75
  7. ^ a b c d e f 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. borra
  8. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. burra
  9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. burra
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1411
  11. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. borra
  12. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. borra
  13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. bourre
  14. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. borra
  15. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. borrar
  16. ^ 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. borra
  17. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. borra
  18. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. borra
  19. ^ 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. borra
  20. ^ 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, 801
  21. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. borra
  22. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. borra
  23. ^ 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. borra
  24. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. borra
  25. ^ a b Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. borra²
  26. ^ 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. borra

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Borra.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/borra. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·