braço

Forms

braço m (plural braços)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote braço, in the 14th century also braaço, and in the 15th braco.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin bracchium (“arm”), also spelt brāchium, written Old Galician-Portuguese braço in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek βραχίων (brakhíōn, “arm”).^[2][5][1] This comes from βραχύς (brakhús, “short”) with a comparative suffix, literally “the shorter one”, because the upper arm is shorter than the forearm.^[6] The Greek adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“short”).^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician brazo, Spanish brazo, Catalan braç, French bras, Italian braccio and Romanian braț.^[7][1] Its neuter plural bracchia gave braça and Spanish braza, a measure of the outstretched arms.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's first record, of 1059, is a Latin charter with ad illos brazos, where the word names a feature of the land.^[3][9] In Galician-Portuguese the word appears in the 13th century: the Cantigas de Santa Maria show the Virgin holding enos braços her Son, and tell how her image tendeu o braço “stretched out its arm”.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana already uses the plural for the straps of a shield, and the Crónica Geral has the figure o meu destro braço “my right arm”, for a trusted helper.^[9] Bluteau notes that the word is used both for the whole limb and, properly, for the part from the shoulder to the elbow.^[10]

Figueiredo (1899) lists the transferred senses: a worker, power and courage, the tentacle of a polyp, the branch of a tree, the arm of a river or the sea, a spur of a mountain, and the arms of an anchor.^[11] Modern dictionaries add the arm of a chair, a lever, a balance, a cross or a windmill.^[2][5] In Brazil it also names the place where a river joins another.^[12]

Timeline

• 1059 – a Latin charter has ad illos brazos.^[3][9]
• 13th century – braço and braços in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[9][2]
• 14th century – the spelling braaço.^[2]
• c. 1430 – braço in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[13]
• 15th century – the spelling braco.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates Braço as brachium and lacertus.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau discusses the narrow sense, from the shoulder to the elbow.^[10]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists the senses “worker”, “arm of a river” and “spur of a mountain”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The arm, each upper limb from the shoulder to the hand: Partiu o braço a jogar à bola.^[2][4][1]
2. (anatomy) The upper arm, from the shoulder to the elbow.^[2][5][4]
3. A foreleg of a four-footed animal; a tentacle of an octopus or similar animal.^[2][5][4]
4. (figurative) Power, authority; strength to act.^[2][4]
5. (figurative) A worker;^[2][4][1] (in the plural) labour: Faltam braços na lavoura.^[2][4][1]
6. Anything shaped like an arm: the arm of a chair, of a lever or a balance, of a cross, of a windmill.^[2][5][1]
7. An arm of a river or the sea, an inlet.^[1][11]
8. The neck of a stringed instrument.^[1][15]
9. A spur of a mountain range.^[1][11]

Word family

• antebraço
• braçadeira
• braçal
• braçudo

Related words

• abraçar
• abraço
• braça
• braquial
• Latin bracchium
• Galician brazo

Usage notes

De braço dado means “arm in arm”, and braço de ferro was “a strong arm”.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. braço
3. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. braço
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. braço
5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. braço
6. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. βραχίων
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. brazo
9. ^ a b c d e 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. braço
10. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
11. ^ a b c d Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. braço
12. ^ 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. braço
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. braço
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
15. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira
16. ^ 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. braço