calor

Forms

calor m (plural calores)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin calor (“heat, warmth”), an early learned word.^[2][1][3] Houaiss dates it to the 15th century but calls it an old learned loan of the 14th, because its sounds, with the /l/ kept between vowels, are not those of an inherited word.^[2] Nascentes reports that Nunes explained the kept /l/ in the same way, while Meyer-Lübke put it down to the influence of caldo.^[4]

The same Latin word is Spanish calor, Catalan calor, Galician calor, French chaleur and Italian calore.^[2][5][1] Houaiss notes that the Spanish, French and Italian words are recorded from the 13th century.^[2][5][1]

The Latin noun is formed from caleō (“to be warm”) with the suffix -or.^[6][1] De Vaan reconstructs the verb as Proto-Italic *kalē-, a stative Proto-Indo-European *ḱlh₁-eh₁- (“to be hot”), cognate with Welsh clyd and Lithuanian šil̃tas (“warm”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date is of the 15th century, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The Livro dos Mártires, printed in 1513, has two examples.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau sets the old and new physics side by side: for the Aristotelians heat is a quality that joins like things and separates unlike ones, for the Cartesians a motion of invisible particles.^[9] Morais (1789) gives the sensation caused by fire or the sun, its effect on bodies, and figuratively the ardour of youth, with dar calor “to encourage” and o calor da batalha “the heat of battle”.^[10]

Modern dictionaries add the physical sense, a form of energy passed from one body to another, and the figurative senses “warmth, cordiality” and “zeal”.^[2][11][12] Informal regional senses are “trouble, a hard time” (in Brazilian football), “courage” in southern Brazil, “heat” of animals in Minas Gerais, “fright” and “a telling-off” in Portugal, and “drunkenness” in the Azores.^[2][1] The word passed into the creoles as Kabuverdianu kalor and Papiamentu kalor.^[1]

Timeline

• 1400s – first records.^[2]
• 1513 – calor in the printed Livro dos Mártires.^[8]
• 1614 – first record of caloroso.^[13]
• 1697 – Pereira renders calor with Latin calor and aestus.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives the Aristotelian and the Cartesian definitions.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais records dar calor and o calor da batalha.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or state of being hot; high temperature (temperatura): o calor do forno.^[2][11]
2. The sensation felt on touching something hot or in a hot place: Está muito calor nesta sala.^[2][11]
3. (physics) heat, energy that passes from one system to another because of a difference in temperature.^[2][12][1]
4. (physiology) A rise in body temperature, as in fever, and, in the plural, hot flushes.^[2][15]
5. Hot weather; the heat of the sun.^[2][11][1]
6. (figurative) Intensity of feeling or action: no calor da discussão.^[2]
7. (figurative) Warmth, cordiality; liveliness, zeal.^[2][11]
8. The warm quality of colours in which red and yellow prevail.^[2]
9. (informal) A hard time in overcoming an obstacle.^[2]
10. (Minas Gerais) The cio of animals.^[2]
11. (southern Brazil) Courage, spirit.^[2]
12. (Portugal, informal) A fright; a reprimand.^[2]
13. (Azores) drunkenness.^[1]

Word family

• caloroso
• calorão
• calorento

Related words

• caldo
• calefação
• escalfar
• quente
• Latin calor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 t Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. calor
3. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. calor
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 90
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. calor
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. calor
9. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. calor
10. ^ 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, 218
11. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. calor
12. ^ a b 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. calor
13. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. caloroso
14. ^ 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. calor
15. ^ 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. calor