bruma

Forms

bruma f (plural brumas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin brūma (“winter solstice, winter”).^[2][3][4] Houaiss and Cunha date it to the 16th century, and Bluteau (1712–1728) still called it a Latin word;^[2][3][5][1] Wiktionary instead treats it as inherited through the medieval form Old Galician-Portuguese bruma.^[2][3][5][1]

The REW gives the meaning “fog” for both Spanish bruma and Portuguese, besides French brume, Catalan broma and Italian bruma.^[6] In Spanish the sense “fog” is recorded from 1570 and “winter” from 1444.^[7] The French word is a borrowing of the Latin one, recorded in 1265.^[8]

The Latin noun is an old superlative of brevis (“short”), literally “the shortest (day)”;^[9][10][4] Varro already explained it so.^[9][10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's first record is a 16th-century sermon of Frei João de Ceita, com as asprezas e regelos da bruma “with the harshness and frosts of winter”, where the word still means the winter.^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

In the early dictionaries the word kept its Latin sense: Bluteau explains it as the days of the winter solstice, and Morais (1789) as a poetic word for winter.^[5][12] Morais's edition of 1813 adds rain and the tempo da bruma of farmers, the dead season from 8 December to 6 January.^[11]

The sense “fog, mist” is in Figueiredo (1899), with “dark and rainy weather”, and Silva Bastos (1912) defines it as fog, especially at sea.^[13][14] Modern dictionaries add a dry haze of dust or smoke and figurative senses: what is unclear, uncertain or half forgotten, as in as brumas do passado.^[2][15][16] In Bahia it also names a state of irritability or gloom.^[2]

Timeline

• 16th century – bruma “winter” in the sermons of João de Ceita.^[4]
• 1523 – first record of the learned adjective brumal.^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau calls bruma a Latin word for the days of the winter solstice.^[5]
• 1789 – Morais: “(poetic) winter”.^[12]
• 1836 – first record of brumoso.^[18]
• 1899 – Figueiredo defines it as fog.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. mist, fog, especially at sea: A bruma cobria o porto ao amanhecer.^{[2][15][19][1]}
2. (meteorology) A haze that reduces visibility, caused by dust, smoke or pollution.^[2][16]
3. (rare) The grey, rainy weather of winter.^[2]
4. (figurative) What is obscure, vague or uncertain; what is half forgotten in the past.^[2][15][20]
5. (Bahia) A state of irritability or depression.^[2]

Word family

• brumoso

Related words

• brumal
• breve
• Latin brūma
• Spanish bruma
• French brume

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. bruma
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. bruma
4. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. bruma
5. ^ a b c d Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bruma
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1335
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bruma
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. brume
9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 304
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, 200
13. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. bruma
14. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. bruma
15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. bruma
16. ^ a b 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. bruma
17. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. brumal
18. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. brumoso
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1549
20. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. bruma