cama

Forms

cama f (plural camas, diminutive caminha, augmentative camona)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cama (“low bed, bed on the ground”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cama in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] As a Latin word it is known only from Isidore of Seville, who describes it as a short bed close to the ground and links it with Ancient Greek χαμαί (khamaí, “on the ground”).^[4][5][6]

Its further origin is uncertain: Meyer-Lübke thought the Greek link possible only if the word were shortened from a longer Greek name for a bed on the ground, and suggested an Iberian origin instead.^[7] Corominas considers it perhaps pre-Roman, and Wiktionary a probable borrowing from a Paleo-Hispanic language.^[4][1] Aurélio gives it as Hispanic Latin of pre-Roman origin.^[8] Adolfo Coelho, as Nascentes reports, derived it from a popular Latin verb meaning “to lay on the ground”.^[6]

The word survives only in Portuguese and Spanish, Galician cama and Spanish cama (first recorded in Spanish in 1251), with derivatives such as Basque kamaiña (“bed, pallet”) and in the south-west of France, whence French camagne (“sailor's bunk”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century have fez-lle sa cama ben entre dous cantos “he made her bed right between two corners”, and macar jaça en leito ou en cama “though he lie in bed or on a pallet”.^[9][2][3] Lorenzo also cites duas camas “two beds” from a translated law of 1223.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word meant a bed or any place to lie down: the Crónica Troiana says people jazen... en bõas camas “lie in good beds”.^[9] Bluteau (1712–1728) keeps cama apart from leito, the bedstead.^[10] Morais (1813) adds the lair of a pig or deer and the raised bed of earth in which melons are grown.^[11] Later dictionaries record a layer of soft material for packing fragile things, and in Brazil a river bed and the flattened grass where an animal has lain.^[12][2] Brazilian slang uses cama jokingly for prison, and in Portugal it is a sleeping berth on a train.^[2]

The word passed into Kabuverdianu as kama, and into Kimbundu as mukama.^[1]

Timeline

• 1223 – duas camas in a Portuguese translation of a law of this year.^[9]
• 13th century – cama in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[9][3]
• 1416 – cama in the Vida de Santo Aleixo.^[13]
• 16th century – acamar and camada; the diminutive camilha in 1532.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Cama with Latin cubile and lectus.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists fazer a cama.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau distinguishes cama from leito.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais adds the animal's lair and the melon bed.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any place where a person or animal can lie down and sleep.^[2][8]
2. A place prepared for resting, such as a heap of leaves or straw or an animal's lair (covil).^[2][11]
3. A bed, the piece of furniture with a mattress.^[2][16][1]
4. (figurative) Rest in bed, especially during an illness.^[2]
5. (figurative) Sexual relations.^[2]
6. A layer (camada) of soft material on which fragile objects are laid.^[2][17]
7. The flattened side of a fruit that has lain on the ground.^[2]
8. (Brazil) The place in a field where an animal has lain and left its mark.^[2][18]
9. (Brazil, jocular) jail.^[2]
10. (Brazil) The bed of a river or lake.^[2][12]
11. (Portugal) A sleeping berth on a train.^[2]
12. (agriculture) A seedbed (sementeira), a raised bed of earth.^[2][11]
13. A bed as a unit of hotel or hospital capacity.^[16]

Word family

• acamado
• acamar
• camada

Related words

• leito
• Spanish cama

Usage notes

Houaiss also records a rare 19th-century adjective and noun cama, “of the Camae”, a people of Asian Scythia, from Latin Camae.^[2]

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 j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cama
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cama
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 773
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. cama
6. ^ a b 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
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1537
8. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cama
9. ^ a b c d e 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. cama
10. ^ 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. cama
11. ^ a b c d Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 328
12. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. cama
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cama
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cama
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cama
16. ^ 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. cama
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cama
18. ^ 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. cama