caldo

Forms

caldo m (plural caldos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin caldus (“warm, hot”), the shortened form of calidus, used as a noun.^[2][3][1][4] Nascentes points to the Appendix Probi for the short form.^[5] Aurélio suggests some influence of calda.^[6]

The same Latin adjective is Italian caldo, French chaud, Catalan cald and Romanian cald “hot”, but Galician caldo and Spanish caldo keep it only as a noun meaning “broth”.^[7][1] In Spanish the adjective Old Spanish caldo (“hot”) is recorded in 1050 and 1155 before it gave way to caliente.^[8] The Galician-Portuguese adjective survives in the place name Caldas, already recorded in 961, and in the phrase Old Galician-Portuguese ferro caldo (“hot iron”) in the Horto do Esposo.^[4]

The Latin word is formed from caleō (“to be warm”) with the suffix -idus.^[1] Its learned doublet is cálido.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria a sick woman is given broth with verjuice to comfort her (que lle dessen caldo con do agraz), and another can neither eat nor drink anything senon cald' ou agua fria “but broth or cold water”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

A chronicle of 1344 tells of people in a famine who ate the hides of cows and drank the broth made from them, and a document of 1365 asks for twenty eggs pera caldo amarelo, a broth thickened with egg yolks.^[4] Bluteau (1712) explains the name by the broth being taken hot.^[9] Morais (1813) records the familiar phrases entornar o caldo “to spoil the business” and remexer os caldos “to have a hand in an affair”.^[10] In northern Portugal caldo verde is a soup of potatoes, finely cut kale and olive oil, and the word itself came to mean “kale, greens” in some regions.^[2][11][12] In Brazil it took the sense of the juice of sugar cane and other plants, recorded by Beaurepaire-Rohan in 1889, and informal senses such as a dunking in the water.^[13][2][6] The word was borrowed into Indonesian as kaldu.^[1]

Timeline

• 961 – the place name caldas in a Latin charter.^[4]
• 13th century – caldo in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][3]
• 1344 – beuyã o caldo delles in a chronicle.^[4]
• 1365 – caldo amarelo in a document.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists caldo.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists caldo requentado.^[15]
• 1813 – Morais records entornar o caldo and caldo amarelo.^[10]
• 1889 – Beaurepaire-Rohan records caldo de canna in Brazil.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. broth, stock: a liquid food made by boiling meat, fish or vegetables in water: Fez um caldo de peixe para o jantar.^[2][6][1]
2. (chiefly Brazil) The juice pressed from fruit or other parts of plants, especially sugar cane: caldo de cana.^[2][6][1]
3. (Brazil, informal) A dunking: pushing someone's head under the water, in play or spite.^[2][6]
4. (Portugal, informal) A slap on the back of the neck.^[2][16]
5. (Portugal, journalism, informal) A tip-off given to a journalist by a non-professional informant.^[2]
6. (regional, Portugal) Kale, greens.^[12][16]
7. (biology) A liquid culture medium for microbes, caldo de cultura.^[2][17]

Adjective

1. (rare) Hot.^[18][17]

Word family

• caldo verde
• caldinho

Related words

• caldeira
• caldeirão
• cálido
• quente
• calda
• escaldar
• Latin calidus
• Spanish caldo

Usage notes

Caldo verde is a soup of Portuguese origin, entornar o caldo means to ruin a plan, and in Brazil also to cause a row, caldo requentado is something stale that has lost its first effect.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. caldo
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. caldo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. caldo
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 89
6. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. caldo
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. caldus
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 759
9. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caldo
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 325
11. ^ 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. caldo
12. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 231
13. ^ a b Beaurepaire-Rohan, Henrique de (1889), Diccionario de vocabulos brazileiros, Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, p. s.v. caldo
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caldo
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caldo
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. caldo
17. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1672
18. ^ 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. caldo