calvo

Forms

calvo (feminine calva, masculine plural calvos, feminine plural calvas)^[1] The 13th-century spelling is caluo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin calvus (“bald”), written Old Galician-Portuguese caluo in the 13th century.^[2][3][4][5] The same Latin adjective is Galician calvo, Spanish calvo, Italian calvo, French chauve and Old Occitan calv.^[6][7][8]

The Latin word goes back to *kalowos and *klh₂wós (“bald”).^[1][9] De Vaan explains that, since *lw gives a double l in Latin, the adjective must come from a form with a vowel between the l and the w; its cognates are Sanskrit कुल्व (kulvá, “bald, thin-haired”) and Avestan kauruua- (“thin-haired”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cantiga d'escarnho of Afonso X mocks a band of foot soldiers todos calvos e sen lanças “all bald and without lances”.^[10][11] The word already has its literal sense, “bald”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines the word as having the head or part of it without hair, and records pecego calvo, a smooth peach, and terra calva and monte calvo for bare ground and hills.^[12] Morais (1789) has the bare rocks and hills, and the peach without down.^[13] Vieira (1871) adds mentira calva, a barefaced lie, a person who cannot hide his game, and vinha calva, a vineyard with missing vines.^[14]

Brazilian Portuguese also uses the word for a person who is going bald.^[1] As a surname, Calvo was at first a nickname.^[15]

Timeline

• 1200s – calvos in a cantiga d'escarnho of Afonso X.^[10][2]
• c. 1538 – first record of escalvado.^[3]
• 1591 – callvo in a private letter.^[16]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records pecego calvo and monte calvo.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais records the figurative sense “bare of vegetation”.^[13]
• 1836 – first record of calvice.^[3]
• 1844 – first record of calvície.^[3]
• 1871 – Vieira records mentira calva.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. bald: having no hair on the head or on part of it, from shaving, illness or age: um senhor calvo de óculos.^{[2][4][17][1]}
2. (Brazil) balding.^[1]
3. Lacking its natural covering; of an animal, without hair on part of the body.^[2][18]
4. Of ground or a hill: bare, without vegetation; escalvado.^[2][4][17]
5. Of a peach: with a smooth skin, without down.^[19][18]
6. Of a vineyard: with gaps where the vines have died.^[20][14]
7. (figurative) Of a lie: obvious, barefaced: mentira calva.^[2][4][17]
8. (figurative) Of a person: unable to hide the truth or to deceive.^[2]

Noun

1. A bald person; careca.^[2][4][17]

Word family

• escalvado

Related words

• calva
• calvície
• Latin calvus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. calvo
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. calvo
4. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. calvo
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. 1, 90
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1533
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. calvus
8. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. calvo
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. calvo
11. ^ a b Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. calvo
12. ^ 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. calvo
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c 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, 56
15. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. calvo
16. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. calvo
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. calvo
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. calvo
19. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. calvo
20. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. calvo