caixa

Forms

caixa f (plural caixas)^[1] The oldest forms are qajxa and cajxa (14th century) and quaixa and caxa (15th century).^[2][3] Caxa was still the main spelling in Bluteau (1712) and Morais (1789).^[4][5] In the senses “cashier” and “ledger” the noun can be masculine.^[1][6]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old Catalan caixa or the related Old Occitan caissa, from Latin capsa (“round box for book rolls; chest”).^[2][3][7][1] Houaiss holds that the word came through trade, and explains the /ks/ in place of the Latin /ps/ as a change of Catalan and Occitan due to a pre-Roman substrate of the Pyrenees.^[2] The DLP names only the Occitan source.^[6]

Spanish caja is probably from the same Catalan or Occitan word: the DCECH first finds it, as caxa, in Calila e Dimna, of 1251, and argues from its rarity in medieval Castilian that it was a loan.^[8][9] The Latin word gave Italian cassa and French châsse (“reliquary”), and French caisse comes from Occitan.^[10] The REW also takes the Portuguese word from Occitan.^[10] De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Italic *kapso- (“container”), probably from capiō (“to take”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's and Cunha's first record is qajxa, of 1364 in Cunha's medieval index.^[2][3] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders Caixa by Latin capsa.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712) defines caxa as a kind of chest with a separate lid and no lock or hinges; he also gives the sense “drum” (tocar caxas) and says that among merchants the one who receives money for all is called the caxa.^[4] Morais (1789) has the chest and the drum.^[5] Constâncio's dictionary of 1836 is Cunha's first record of caixão and caixote.^[3]

From the box that held money came the cash desk of a shop or bank, its cashier, the accounts book that records receipts and payments, cash itself and institutions that manage funds for a set purpose.^[2][6] Other senses are technical: the printer's type case (whence caixa-alta and caixa-baixa, capitals and small letters), a gearbox (caixa de marchas), the snare drum and, in informal Brazilian football, a player's chest.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1364 – qajxa, the first record.^[2][3]
• 15th century – the forms caixa, caxa and quaixa.^[2][3]
• 1542 – caxa in a private letter of the Post Scriptum corpus.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders Caixa by Latin capsa.^[12]
• 1712 – Bluteau's caxa “chest”, “drum” and “the one who receives money”.^[4]
• 1836 – caixão and caixote in Constâncio's dictionary.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A box: a container of wood, cardboard, metal or another material for keeping or carrying things.^[2][7][1]
2. The contents of a box: comeu uma caixa inteira de bombons.^[2][7]
3. The cash desk or checkout of a shop, bank or office, where payments are made and received.^[2][1]
4. (masculine or feminine) A cashier, the person who works at a cash desk.^[2][6][1]
5. (accounting, masculine) A ledger recording receipts and payments; the account that records them.^[2][6][1]
6. Cash in hand; the funds of a firm.^[2]
7. An institution that receives and manages funds for a set purpose, such as a savings or pension fund.^[2]
8. (printing) The type case divided into compartments for the letters.^[2][14]
9. (music) A snare drum.^[2][1]
10. A casing that covers and protects a mechanism: caixa de marchas.^[2][7]

Word family

• caixão
• caixeiro
• caixeta
• caixilho
• caixote
• encaixar
• encaixe
• encaixotar
• desencaixar
• desencaixotar
• caixa-alta
• caixa-negra

Related words

• cápsula
• Latin capsa
• Spanish caja

Usage notes

Houaiss and Bluteau also record a separate caixa, a copper coin of very small value in India, from Tamil or Dravidian kásu, which Dalgado traces to Sanskrit karsa “a weight of silver or gold”; his quotations begin in 1510.^[2][15][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. caixa
3. ^ 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. caixa
4. ^ 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. caxa
5. ^ 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, 250
6. ^ a b c d e 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. caixa
7. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. caixa
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 740
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caja
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1658
11. ^ 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. capsa
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caixa
13. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. caixa
14. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. caixa
15. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caixa
16. ^ Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 1, 175