cabelo

Forms

cabelo m (plural cabelos, diminutive cabelinho, augmentative cabelão)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote cabelo and cabello;^[2][3] Houaiss records cabello in the 14th century and cabelho in the 15th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin capillus (“hair of the head”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cabelo and Old Galician-Portuguese cabello in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] Houaiss notes that Varro took the Latin word for a collective noun without a plural, though Latin authors used it in both numbers.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician cabelo, Spanish cabello, Catalan cabell, French cheveu and Italian capello.^[5][1]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear: it looks like a diminutive, and it has often been derived from caput (“head”), but de Vaan finds this difficult in form and unconvincing in meaning, since a “little head” is hardly “hair”.^[6][1] The DHLF also calls the links with the word for head and with pilus (“hair”) doubtful.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is common from the 13th century: in the Cantigas de Santa Maria a penitent barva non fez nen cercẽou cabelos “neither shaved his beard nor cut his hair”, and in a cantiga d'amigo of Pero Meogo the girl vay lavar cabelos na fontana fria “goes to wash her hair at the cold spring”.^[3] In the medieval language en cabelos, with the hair uncovered, described an unmarried girl, since the coif was the mark of a married woman.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

The word meant the hair of the head from the first records, and was extended to the hair of other parts of the body and to the long hair of some animals.^[2][9][4] Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 already has cabelo comprido and cabelo louro, and the derivatives cabeleyra and cabeluda cousa.^[10] Later senses are technical and figurative: the fine spiral spring that regulates small watches, a tiny distance or amount (por um cabelo “by a hair”), and a quality of wool separated from the dirty wool.^[2][9] Brazil has many expressions for kinds of hair, especially in the north-east.^[11][9]

The word passed into the creoles: kabelu in Kabuverdianu, Guinea-Bissau Creole and Kristang, and kabei in Papiamentu.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the cantigas d'amigo;^[3][4][2] Cunha dates cabeludo to the same century.^[3][4][2]
• 14th century – the spelling cabello, and the derivative cabeladura.^[2][4]
• 15th century – the spelling cabelho.^[2]
• 1500 – first record of cabeleira.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders Cabelo by Latin capillus and crinis.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists cabelo comprido and cabelo louro.^[10]
• 1836 – cabeleireiro “hairdresser” is first recorded in Constâncio's dictionary.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The hair of the head, as a whole: Ela cortou o cabelo curto.^[2][13][1]
2. A single hair of the head or of the body.^[2][11][1]
3. (by extension) Hair growing on other parts of the body, or the long hair of certain animals.^[2][11][1]
4. Any fine thread-like structure.^[2][14]
5. The hairspring, the fine spiral spring that regulates small watches.^[2][11]
6. (figurative) A very small distance or amount.^[2][14]

Word family

• cabeleira
• cabeleireiro
• cabeludo
• cabeladura
• cabelinho
• descabelar
• descabelado

Related words

• capilar
• Latin capillus
• Galician cabelo
• Spanish cabello

Usage notes

Set phrases include por um cabelo “by a hair, very narrowly”, estar pelos cabelos “to be fed up”, de arrepiar os cabelos “hair-raising”, de cabelo na venta “quick-tempered” and ter cabelos no coração “to be cruel”.^[14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cabelo
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. cabelo
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cabelo
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1628
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. capillus
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. cheveu
8. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. cabelo
9. ^ 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. cabelo
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cabelo
11. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cabelo
12. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cabelo
13. ^ 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. cabelo
14. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1598
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cabelo