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calcar

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word calcar

calcar1 to tread, press down

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1300s
Inherited from
Latin calco
Ultimate origin
Latin calx
Etymology tree of calcar1
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek χάλιξ (khálix)
Latin calx
French chaux
Italian calce
Italian calcio
Spanish coz
English chalk
Latin calcō
Italian calcare
French calquer
Portuguese calcar
Romanian călca
The journey of calcar1
From the same root · calcar1
Latin calcar ← calx
Latin calcārius ← calx
Latin calceus ← calx
Latin calcitrō ← calx
Latin calcium ← calx
Latin calculus ← calx
Latin conculcō ← calcō
Latin inculcō ← calcō
Latin prōculcō ← calcō
French décalquer ← calquer
Romanian călcătură ← călca
Romanian încălca ← călca

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /kawˈka(ʁ)/, [kaʊ̯ˈka(h)][1]
  • São-Paulo: /kawˈka(ɾ)/, [kaʊ̯ˈka(ɾ)][1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /kawˈka(ʁ)/, [kaʊ̯ˈka(χ)][1]
  • Caipira: /kawˈka(ɻ)/, [kaʊ̯ˈka(ɻ)][1]

Forms

calcar (first-person singular present calco, first-person singular preterite calquei, past participle calcado)[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Latin calcō (“to tread, trample”), which is formed from calx (“heel”).[2][3][1][4] Houaiss's oldest record, of 1180, comes from Machado's material; the next he gives is from the 14th century.[2]

The same Latin verb is Galician calcar, Spanish calcar, Catalan calcar, Italian calcare, Romanian călca and Old French chauchier, which survives in modern French only of a cock treading a hen.[5][6] The Spanish verb is recorded from 1220–1250.[7]

De Vaan lists calcar (“spur”) and calceus (“shoe”) among the derivatives of the Latin noun.[8] He finds a link with Balto-Slavic words for parts of the leg, such as Lithuanian kulkšnìs (“ankle”), very doubtful, and notes that some scholars have argued for a non-Indo-European, perhaps Etruscan, origin without a concrete comparison.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cardoso (1569) renders calcar with Latin stipo and refercio, “to cram, pack tight”, and Pereira (1697) with calco, conculco and proculco, “to tread down”.[9][10] Cunha's first date is the 16th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) defines the verb as pressing down with the feet, a rammer or a mallet; he gives the figurative calcar as leis aos pés “to trample the laws underfoot” and the practice of packing measures of flour so that they hold more.[11] Cunha dates the figurative sense “to oppress, humiliate” to 1881 and “to repress, hold back” to the 20th century.[3] The old Aulete adds the painters' and engravers' sense “to transfer a drawing by pressure”, the same as decalcar, from which come the modern “to model on, imitate”.[12][2]

Timeline

  • 1180 – Houaiss's first date, from Machado's material.[2]
  • 14th century – calcar among Houaiss's historical forms.[2]
  • 1569 – Cardoso: “to cram, pack tight”.[9]
  • 1697 – Pereira glosses it with Latin calco and conculco.[10]
  • 1789 – Morais gives calcar as leis aos pés and the packing of flour measures.[11]
  • 1881 – first date of the sense “to oppress, humiliate”.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To tread on, to press down with the feet: Calcou bem a terra à volta da planta.[2][13][1]
  2. To press hard, compress; to pack down: calcar o tabaco no cachimbo.[2][14]
  3. (figurative) To humiliate, oppress.[2][1]
  4. To hold back, repress (a feeling or impulse).[2][15]
  5. To treat with contempt; to disregard (laws, rules); hence calcar aos pés “to trample underfoot”.[2][13]
  6. To trace a drawing by pressing it onto another surface; decalcar.[2][12]
  7. To copy, imitate; to model (something) on an example.[2][12]

Word family

  • recalcar
  • recalque
  • recalcamento
  • calcante

calcar2 spur (botany, zoology)

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
Borrowed from
Latin calcar
Ultimate origin
Latin calx
Etymology tree of calcar2
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek χάλιξ (khálix)
Latin calx
French chaux
Italian calce
Italian calcio
Spanish coz
English chalk
Latin calcar
Portuguese calcar
The journey of calcar2
From the same root · calcar2
Latin calcārius ← calx
Latin calceus ← calx
Latin calcitrō ← calx
Latin calcium ← calx
Latin calcō ← calx
Latin calculus ← calx

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /kawˈka(ʁ)/, [kaʊ̯ˈka(h)][1]
  • São-Paulo: /kawˈka(ɾ)/, [kaʊ̯ˈka(ɾ)][1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /kawˈka(ʁ)/, [kaʊ̯ˈka(χ)][1]
  • Caipira: /kawˈka(ɻ)/, [kaʊ̯ˈka(ɻ)][1]

Forms

calcar m (plural calcares)[1]

Etymology

The noun for the spur is borrowed from Latin calcar (“spur”), a learned borrowing of the botanists and zoologists.[2][12] The Latin word for a rider's spur is related to calx (“heel”), calceus (“shoe”) and the verb calcō.[16][8] Aurélio calls the source scientific Latin.[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cardoso's Latin–Portuguese dictionary of 1562 already translates Latin calcar as a espora “the spur”, but that is the Latin word.[18] As a Portuguese botanical term the first dictionary to list it here is the first edition of Aurélio (1975).[19]

Timeline

  • 1562 – Cardoso translates Latin calcar as “the spur”.[18]
  • 1975 – the botanical noun in the first edition of Aurélio.[19]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (botany) A spur: a hollow, usually conical outgrowth of the corolla or calyx formed by a petal or sepal; espora.[2][12][14]
  2. (zoology) In arthropods, a movable spine-like process.[2][12]
  3. (zoology) The strongest spur on the tibia of an insect.[2][12]

Word family

  • calcarado

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. calcar
  3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. calcar
  4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. calcō
  5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1491
  6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. calcare
  7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. calcar
  8. ^ a b c 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. calx
  9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. calcar
  10. ^ 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. calcar
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ a b c d e f g 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. calcar
  13. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1663
  14. ^ a b 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. calcar
  15. ^ 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. calcar
  16. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. calcar
  17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. calcar
  18. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1562), Dictionarium juventuti studiosae admodum frugiferum, Coimbra: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. calcar
  19. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. s.v. calcar

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Calcar.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/calcar. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·