cadeia

Forms

cadeia f (plural cadeias)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote cadea and, with the nasal vowel, cadẽa.^[2][3][4] Cunha dates the spelling cadeia from the 17th century.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin catēna (“chain”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cadea (with the nasal vowel, cadẽa) in the oldest texts.^[4][3][2][1] The Latin word was used mostly in the plural, in literal and figurative senses.^[4]

The same Latin word is Galician cadea, Spanish cadena, Catalan cadena, French chaîne and Italian catena, and it was borrowed into Germanic and Celtic, whence the English word chain.^[5][1][6] Portuguese also has the learned doublet catena, taken directly from Latin.^[1]

De Vaan reconstructs *katesnā with a query and suggests a stem *kat-es-, also seen in caterva (“crowd”); the further origin is unknown, and an Etruscan loan has been suggested.^[7][1] Martirosyan derives the word from a Mediterranean substrate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's earliest vernacular record is a charter of 1265, su cadea de San Xpoboo “his chain of Saint Christopher”.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria tell of a prisoner lying en ferros e con esposas nas mãos e cadẽa na garganta “in irons, with manacles on his hands and a chain on his neck”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval texts the plural is common, for a prisoner's chains: the chronicle of 1344 has mandouho meter em cadeas “he had him put in chains”, and the Miragres de Santiago speak of the chains of our sins.^[2] From the chains the word passed to the place where prisoners are held, the commonest sense in Brazil today, and to bondage in general.^[4][8]

By analogy with the links it came to mean any series of connected things or events, as in cadeia de montanhas “mountain range” and reação em cadeia “chain reaction”.^[4][9][1] The 20th century added a group of shops of one firm and a network of radio or television stations that broadcast the same programme.^[8][10] In rural Portugal cadeia is also each of the crosspieces under the bed of an ox-cart.^[11][12]

The word passed into Tetum as kadeia and into Hunsrik as Katee.^[1]

Timeline

• 1265 – su cadea de San Xpoboo in a charter.^[2][4]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria have cadẽa and cadẽas.^[2]
• 1344 – the chronicle of that year has meter em cadeas “to put in chains”.^[2]
• 1383 – Machado's first dated record of cadea.^[2]
• 1400s – first records of encadear and desencadear.^[3]
• 1600s – Cunha's first record of the spelling cadeia.^[3]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists the senses “prison”, “series” and the ox-cart crosspiece.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A chain of linked metal rings.^[4][8][1]
2. A chain or fetter for holding a prisoner.^[4][10]
3. A prison, a jail: Passou dois anos na cadeia.^[4][8][1]
4. (figurative) Bondage, subjection; anything that restricts freedom.^[4][8]
5. A series or succession of linked things, events or people.^[4][8][1]
6. A group of shops or businesses belonging to the same company.^[8][1]
7. A network of radio or television stations broadcasting the same programme.^[8][10]
8. (chemistry) A series of linked atoms in a molecule.^[9][1]
9. (geography) A mountain range.^[8]
10. (regional, Portugal) Each of the crosspieces under the bed of an ox-cart.^[11][13]

Word family

• encadear
• desencadear
• encadeamento

Related words

• cadeado
• catena
• Galician cadea
• Spanish cadena

Usage notes

The old saying mal por mal, antes na cadeia que no hospital “if it must be bad, better jail than hospital” is quoted by the original Caldas Aulete.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. cadea
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cadeia
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cadeia
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1764
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. chaîne
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cadeia
9. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1631
10. ^ a b c 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. cadeia
11. ^ a b 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. cadeia
12. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 224
13. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cadeia
14. ^ 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. cadeia