calça

Forms

calça f (plural calças)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *calcea (“stocking”), from Latin calceus (“shoe”), written Old Galician-Portuguese calça in the oldest texts.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Wiktionary records the Latin form in Medieval Latin from about 800, in Theodulf of Orléans.^[1] The Romans, who wore neither stockings nor trousers, learnt the use of stockings from the Germanic peoples and named them with a derivative of their word for the shoe.^[6][7] Priberam, the Porto Editora dictionary and Michaelis take the Portuguese noun as a back-formation from calçar instead, as Vieira and Figueiredo did.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} The Latin word for the shoe is a noun use of calx (“heel”) with the adjective suffix -eus.^[1]

The same word is Galician calza, Spanish calza, Catalan calça, Occitan cauça, Old French chauce and Italian calza.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Galician-Portuguese document of 1242–1252 has de que tirey as calças do prior “from which I took the prior's hose”.^[13][14] In the cantigas d'escarnho Afonso X mocks a man con sas calças velhas de branqueta “with his old hose of branqueta”, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria tell of legs so swollen that non podiam caber enas calças “could not fit into the hose”.^[13][15] Cunha gives the first sense as footwear and then the garment.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval texts the word is nearly always plural and names hose, stockings that covered the foot and part of the leg.^[13][6] Over time the hose grew longer until they covered the body from the feet to the waist; in the 16th century the garment was split in two, the upper part keeping the name calças and the lower becoming meia calça and then simply meia “stocking”.^[6] Barbosa (1611) equates calças with calções, breeches, and Morais (1789) describes them as wide breeches tied at the knee, already old-fashioned.^[16][17] The modern sense is trousers for men or women; the plural also means women's knickers.^[6][3]

By likeness the word names the band tied round a hen's leg to mark its owner, white patches on a horse's legs, the feathers on a bird's legs and the ring on the stem of a mushroom.^[6][9][1]

Timeline

• 1242–1252 – as calças do prior in a Galician-Portuguese document.^[13]
• 13th century – calças in the cantigas d'escarnho of Afonso X and in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[13][15]
• c. 1430 – calças in the Horto do Esposo.^[18]
• 1458 – a document quoted by Viterbo has huma calça de arêa, a stocking filled with sand used as a weapon.^[19]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses calças with Latin caliga.^[20]
• 1611 – Barbosa equates calças with calções.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais describes calças as wide breeches tied at the knee.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly in the plural; singular especially in Brazil) trousers, pants: a garment for men or women covering each leg separately from the waist, usually to the ankles.^{[6][14][3][1]}
2. (in the plural) Women's knickers, calcinhas.^[6][3]
3. (historical) hose: stockings covering the feet and part of the legs; later wide breeches tied at the knee.^[6][4]
4. A band or ring tied round the leg of a hen or other fowl to mark its owner.^[6][8][21]
5. A white or pale patch on the leg of a horse or other animal.^[6][8]
6. (ornithology) The feathers covering a bird's legs and toes.^[6][22]
7. The ring on the stem of a mushroom.^[9][1]

Word family

• calção
• meia-calça

Related words

• calçar
• calçado
• descalço
• calcanhar
• Latin calceus
• Spanish calza

Usage notes

In Portugal the garment is usually calças, in the plural; the singular calça is the Brazilian usage.^[14][1] In the north of Portugal calça is also a stone that props up pots on the hearth.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. calça
3. ^ 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. calça
4. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. calça
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1495
6. ^ 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. calças
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 770
8. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. calça
9. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1661
10. ^ 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. calça
11. ^ 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, 41
12. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 230
13. ^ a b c d e 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. calça
14. ^ a b c Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. calça
15. ^ a b 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. calças
16. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. calças
17. ^ 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, 216
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. calças
19. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 226
20. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. calças
21. ^ 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. calça
22. ^ 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. calça