braçal

Forms

braçal m or f (plural braçais, not comparable)^[1] Old plurals are braçaaes and bracaães (15th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese braço + -al, as Houaiss, Aurélio and Aulete explain it.^[2][4][5] Machado, the DLP and Porto Editora derive it instead from Latin brachiālis (“of the arm”), and Wiktionary gives both.^[3][6][7][1] The noun braço is from Latin bracchium (“arm”), which Latin took from Ancient Greek βραχίων (brakhíōn).^[8][1]

Its learned doublet is braquial, and Spanish brazal is its counterpart in Spain.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, from 1364, is the adjective in hũa serra braçal grande “a large two-man saw”.^[10][2] The noun for the armour that covered the arm appears in the Crónica Troiana, in a blow struck porlo escudo so o braçal “through the shield, below the arm-guard”.^[10] Houaiss also dates the armour sense to the 14th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Machado's 15th-century quotation has horsemen cõ cotas e bracaães “with mail coats and arm-guards”, and the armour sense is the only one in Viterbo's Elucidário and in Morais (1789).^[3][11][12] Vieira (1871) records the adjective: serra braçal, a saw worked by two people, and trabalho braçal, work done with the arms.^[13]

The adjective now usually describes manual work as opposed to intellectual work, and by extension the person who does it; in Brazil the noun is also a manual labourer.^[4][5][2] Other modern nouns are the arm of a chair and an armband worn as a badge of office, of mourning or, in Portugal, of shipboard service.^[2][6][14] In parts of Portugal braçal was also a yearly tax worth one day's wages.^[15][7]

Timeline

• 1364 – serra braçal “two-man saw”.^[10][2]
• 1300s – the noun for the arm-guard of a suit of armour.^[2][10]
• 1400s – the plural bracaães in the chronicle of the Constable.^[3]
• 1491 – braçal in the Vida de Santo Elói.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais defines only the armour sense.^[12]
• 1871 – Vieira records serra braçal and trabalho braçal.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the arm; braquial.^[2][4][6]
2. Done with the arms or by bodily effort; manual, as opposed to intellectual: trabalho braçal.^[2][4][6][1]
3. Worked by the strength of the arms: uma bomba braçal.^[2][6]
4. Of a saw: worked by two men.^[2][5]
5. Doing heavy manual work; braceiro: trabalhador braçal.^[2][4]

Noun

1. (Brazil) A manual labourer.^[5]
2. A strong, sturdy man.^[2][4]
3. (historical) The piece of armour that covered the arm, the vambrace; guarda-braço.^[2][4][6][1]
4. The arm of a chair or sofa.^[2][6]
5. An armband worn as a badge, a sign of mourning or of first communion; braçadeira.^[2][6][14]
6. (Portugal, nautical) An armband on the left sleeve of the uniform of the shipboard service staff.^[2][5]
7. (Portugal, historical) A yearly tax equal to one day's wages.^[15][7]

Word family

• braçalmente

Related words

• braceiro
• braçadeira
• Latin brachiālis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. braçal
3. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. braçal
4. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. braçal
5. ^ a b c d e 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. braçal
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. braçal
7. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1507
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. braço
9. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. brazal
10. ^ 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. braçal
11. ^ 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, 203
12. ^ 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, 193
13. ^ 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, 807
14. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. braçal
15. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. braçal
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. braçal