calo

Forms

calo m (plural calos)^[1] The etymological spelling callo is recorded from the 15th century.^[2][3][4] Bluteau has calo, ou callo and Morais notes that the etymology calls for callo.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin callum (“hard skin, callus”).^[2][5][6][1]

The same Latin word is Galician calo, Spanish callo and Italian callo.^[7][8] The French cal is a learned remaking of the older popular Old French chaul.^[9]

De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic adjective *kaln- “hard”, which would explain the wavering gender of the Latin noun and the verb calleō (“to be hard”), and compares Old Irish calath “hard”; he calls the Indo-European origin uncertain.^[10] Wiktionary gives a possible root Proto-Indo-European *kal- (“hard”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 14th century.^[2][5] The Miragres de Santiago tell of a man who knelt so often that he had calos on his knees.^[11] The Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) has it three times.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) has fazer calos “to grow calluses”.^[13] Bluteau (1712) adds a metaphorical sense, patience or insensitivity, in tenho feito calos nos trabalhos “I have grown calluses in toil”, and Morais (1789) records ter calos na paciência “to be hard to make impatient” and adquirir calo nos vícios “to become deaf to remorse”.^[3][4] Later dictionaries add the callus of a broken bone, the callus of plants, the ends of the branches of a horseshoe and, in the Alentejo, a stretch of clay soil.^[2][14] Modern phrases are criar calo “to grow used to something” and pisar no calo de alguém “to tread on someone's corns, to offend”.^[2][1][15]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records.^[2][5]
• c. 1430 – calo in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[12]
• 15th century – the spelling callo.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders Calo by Latin callus.^[16]
• 1570 – first record of caloso, spelt calloso.^[5]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists fazer calos.^[13]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives the metaphorical sense “patience, insensitivity”.^[3]
• 1836 – first record of calosidade.^[5]
• 1899 – first records of calista and calicida.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A callus: a thickened, hardened patch of skin caused by rubbing or pressure.^[2][17]
2. A corn, a small hard growth on the toes or the sole of the foot.^[14][18]
3. (medicine) The bony tissue that joins the ends of a broken bone;^[2][17] calo ósseo.^[2][17]
4. (botany) The tissue a plant forms over a wound, as round a pruning cut.^[2][6]
5. (figurative) Hardness of feeling, insensitivity.^[2][19]
6. Experience, practice, the cunning of someone experienced.^[2][17]
7. The end of each branch of a horseshoe (ferradura).^[2][19]
8. (Alentejo) A stretch of clay soil among soils of another kind.^[2][14]
9. (zoology) A rounded swelling on the body of some insects.^[2][6]

Word family

• calejar
• calista

Related words

• calosidade
• caloso
• calicida
• Latin callum
• Spanish callo

Usage notes

In informal Brazilian Portuguese, especially in Pernambuco, calo is also a short form of calote “an unpaid debt”: dar um calo.^{[2][6][20][18]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. calo
3. ^ a b c d Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. calo
4. ^ a b c 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, 218
5. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. calo
6. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. calo
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1531
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. callum
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. cal
10. ^ 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. callum
11. ^ 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. calo
12. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. calo
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. calo
14. ^ a b c 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. calo
15. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. calo
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. calo
17. ^ 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. calo
18. ^ 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. calo
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. calo
20. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. calo