briza

Forms

briza f (plural brizas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin Briza, the scientific name of the genus (1735), from Ancient Greek βρίζα (bríza, “rye”).^[2][1][3] Houaiss glosses the Greek word as a kind of wheat or rye; the LSJ has it for rye in Thrace and Macedonia, in Galen, and thinks it probably a Thracian word, cognate with Lithuanian rugiai (“rye”) and the English word rye.^[2][4] Wiktionary also takes it from Thracian and mentions a possible root Proto-Indo-European *breǵʰ-.^[5] Figueiredo derived the name instead from a Greek verb he gives as brithein, “to bend”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date is Figueiredo's dictionary of 1899, which defines the word as a genus of grasses.^[2][6] The old Caldas Aulete has the same definition.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Besides the genus, the word names any of its species, which are popularly called capim-treme-treme or treme-treme because their spikelets shake in the lightest breeze.^[2][3][8]

Timeline

• 1735 – the genus name Briza in scientific Latin.^[2]
• 1899 – Figueiredo's dictionary lists briza as a genus of grasses.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) quaking grass: any of the grasses of the genus Briza, about twenty species native to temperate Europe, Asia and South America, with broad spikelets and heart-shaped glumes; capim-treme-treme.^[2][8][1]
2. (botany) The genus itself.^[3][9]

Related words

• brisa

Usage notes

Briza was also an older spelling of brisa “breeze”: Bluteau has briza or briza ventante, quoting D. Francisco Manuel's explanation of the cold winds that sailors so called, and Figueiredo and Silva Bastos still give briza as the same as brisa.^[10][6][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. briza
3. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. briza
4. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. βρίζα
5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. βρίζα
6. ^ a b c d Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. briza
7. ^ 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. briza
8. ^ 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. briza
9. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1539
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. briza
11. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. briza