câmara

Forms

câmara f (plural câmaras)^[1] Houaiss records the spelling câmera from 1712 and cambra from 1873.^[2] Bluteau (1712) heads the council sense Camara, ou Camera and notes that Jacinto Freire writes Camera.^[3] Aurélio notes that câmera is the more common form in the film, photographic and television senses.^[4] Aulete adds that the assemblies are almost always câmara.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin camara (“vault; vaulted room”), written Old Galician-Portuguese camara in the oldest texts.^[2][6][1] The Latin word is the variant of Latin camera that Petronius and the Appendix Probi show as popular and that some Hispanic authors (Seneca, Columella) also used;^[7][8][1] Corominas shows that the Spanish and Portuguese forms, like those of several Italian dialects, come from it rather than from the classical form.^[7][8][1]

The same word is Galician cámara, Spanish cámara, Catalan cambra, Occitan cambra, French chambre and Italian camera.^[9][7][1] Latin had borrowed it from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára, “vault, vaulted room”).^[2][10][1] Beekes asks whether the Greek word is itself a loan, since it recalls Avestan kamarā (“girdle”);^[10][1] Wiktionary suggests an Old Iranian source.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1278, after Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century use it for a bedroom (enton ambo-los deytaron / na camara en un leyto “then they laid them both in the chamber on a bed”) and have camara privada for a privy.^[6] In the Crónica Troiana it is a hall or chamber of a palace or temple.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Classical Latin knew only the sense “vault”;^[7] Augustine and Cassiodorus already use it for a room, the sense of the Romance languages.^[7] In the medieval texts it is a bedroom or hall, and in 15th-century Galician documents also the treasury or revenues of a lord, as a camara do arçobispo, and an office at court, as escripvan de camara.^[6]

Bluteau (1712) gives the bedroom first, then the building where the aldermen meet and the council itself, and the Apostolic Chamber of the papal court.^[3] Morais (1813) adds the chamber of a gun, where the powder is loaded, and a small iron piece fired at festivals.^[11] The original Caldas Aulete has the cabins of a ship for officers and passengers and the royal household.^[5] From the assembly came the parliamentary chambers (Câmara dos Deputados) and the divisions of a court; from the closed space came the anatomical, botanical and technical senses, and the optical câmara escura and câmara fotográfica.^[2][4] The person operating a film or television camera is called câmara by shortening of operador de câmara.^[12][4]

The word passed into Asian and African languages: Kristang kambra, Kabuverdianu kánbra, Guinea-Bissau Creole kamara, Tetum kámara and Hindi कमरा (kamrā).^[1]

Timeline

• 1278 – first record, after Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2]
• 13th century – na camara en un leyto in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[6]
• 1342 – cõ ssúa cámarra in a sale deed of Noia.^[6]
• 1416 – camara in the Vida de Santo Aleixo (witness of 1416).^[13]
• 1450 – a cámara do señor arçobispo, the archbishop's revenues, in Noia.^[6]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives the bedroom and the town council, and the spelling camera.^[3][2]
• 1813 – Morais records the chamber of a gun.^[11]
• 1873 – Houaiss's record of the spelling cambra.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) A room of a house, especially a bedroom.^[2][12][4]
2. A legislative assembly, or the place where it meets: a Câmara dos Deputados.^[2][4][1]
3. The town council, short for câmara municipal, and the town hall: Fomos à câmara tratar da licença.^[5][1]
4. Any deliberative body: câmara de comércio.^[2][4]
5. (law) Each division of a court of appeal: câmara criminal.^[2][4]
6. Any closed compartment fitted for a purpose: câmara frigorífica, câmara de gás.^[4][12]
7. (anatomy, botany) A cavity or closed space in a body or between plant cells: the chambers of the heart and eye.^[2][4]
8. (weapons) The rear part of a gun barrel that holds the charge; each chamber of a revolver's cylinder.^[2]
9. (nautical) The quarters of the captain or admiral on a ship.^[2][4]
10. (optics) A camera: a photographic, film or television camera; in Brazil usually câmera.^[2][4][1]
11. (chiefly Portugal; masculine or feminine) A camera operator.^[2][12][1]
12. (obsolete; in the plural) diarrhoea.^[2]

Word family

• antecâmara
• bicamaral
• unicamaral
• camarote
• câmara municipal

Related words

• câmera
• Latin camera
• Spanish cámara

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. câmara
3. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. câmara
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. câmara
5. ^ a b c 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. câmara
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. camara
7. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 779
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. camara
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1545
10. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. καμάρα
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 328
12. ^ a b c d 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. câmara
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. camara