caço

Forms

caço m (plural caços)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is obscure: Houaiss calls it a word common to the Ibero-Romance languages, beside Spanish cazo, first recorded about 1400.^[2][3] Corominas adds Catalan cassa and Occitan cassa, both found in the 14th century, and old Italian cazza, and considers the source uncertain.^[4]

Meyer-Lübke compared a word Late Latin cattia that Latin glosses translate as “ladle, scoop”, and in the REW took it for a variant of Ancient Greek κύαθος (kúathos, “ladle, cup”).^[4] Corominas finds the sound change strange, and the Porto dictionary and Wikcionário still give the Greek word as the source.^[4][5][6] Eguílaz derived it from an Arabic word for a large bowl, which Rohlfs favoured, but Corominas found an Arabic origin unlikely because the word reaches far into France and Italy.^[4] Corriente defends an Arabic source, a word for a bowl in both Andalusian and Classical Arabic, and suggests that the word spread by Mediterranean trade.^[7][8] Aurélio gives Arabic through Spanish; the DLP takes it from the Spanish word, perhaps from the Latin word of the glosses, and Figueiredo derived the Spanish word from Germanic.^[9][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 lists caço with Latin creagra and fuscina, words for a hooked or pronged kitchen utensil.^[12] Pereira (1697) gives Latin ahenulum “small bronze pot”.^[13] Houaiss's date, before 1748, is for the sense “frying pan”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) calls the caço a frying pan with a handle and a word of the Beira.^[14] Feijó (1734) also explains it as a frying pan, and Morais (1789) as a small earthenware one.^[14][15][16] Vieira (1871) labels it old and provincial.^[17] Figueiredo (1899) gives first the sense “large spoon” for serving soup from the tureen or drawing oil from the jar, and records a Trás-os-Montes sense, a brass pan with a long handle for heating milk.^[11] In regional Portuguese it is also a tin dipper for drawing water from a well or wine from the press, and a pot or pan.^[10][18]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – Spanish cazo in the Glosario de Toledo.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso lists caço.^[12]
• 1697 – Pereira renders it as a small pot.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau: a frying pan with a handle, a word of the Beira.^[14]
• before 1748 – Houaiss's first date, for “frying pan”.^[2]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the ladle and the Trás-os-Montes milk pan.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large ladle for serving soup or moving food from one container to another: Serviu o caldo com o caço.^[2][19][1]
2. A frying pan, usually of earthenware, with a handle.^[2][3]
3. By extension, any vessel with a handle that is put on the fire.^[2] (Trás-os-Montes) a brass pan with a long handle for heating milk.^[2][3][10]

Related words

• caçoula
• caçoleta
• Spanish cazo

Usage notes

Aurélio and Priberam point out that caço sounds the same as casso, from the verb cassar.^[9][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. caço
3. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. caço
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 934
5. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1624
6. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. caço
7. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 278
8. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. cazo
9. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. caço
10. ^ a b c 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. caço
11. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. caço
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caço
13. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caço
14. ^ 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. caço
15. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caço
16. ^ 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, 210
17. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 2, 22
18. ^ 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. caço
19. ^ 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. caço