cambiador

Forms

cambiador m (plural cambiadores); also an adjective (feminine cambiadora).^[1] The medieval texts write cãbiador (1275), canbiador, canbador (1289), canbhador (1319) and caybador (1376).^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese cambiar + -dor, an agent noun of the verb for “to exchange”.^[3][4][5] Houaiss analyses it as the stem of the participle cambiado with the suffix -or.^[1] Beside it the old language had Old Galician-Portuguese canbador, from the verb cambar, which until the 16th century lived alongside cambiar in the sense “to exchange”.^[2][6]

The verb is Old Galician-Portuguese cambiar in the oldest texts, from Late Latin cambiō (“to exchange”), a rare and late Latin verb.^[6][7][8] The OLD calls it Gaulish, and Wiktionary derives it from a noun cambium (“exchange”) of Gaulish origin.^[7][8] Cunha connects it with a Celtic root meaning “bent, curved”, hence “alternated, exchanged”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates cãbiador to 1275 from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[1] The Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of “Garin cambiador” and of a money-changer seen in the street “who changed a great quantity of wealth, sterlings and tournois, coins of Burgos and pepiões”.^[2] A Latin charter of 1276 already has the byname dicti canbeador, and a document of 1289 calls two men canbadores in the sense of agents who arranged an exchange between the king and the ladies.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the Middle Ages to the 18th century the word meant a money-changer or banker: the dictionaries of Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) render it with Latin collybista, mensarius and nummularius, and Barbosa and Pereira (1697) refer it to banqueiro.^[9][10][11] Morais (1789) still defines it as a banker who gives one sum of money for another or a bill drawn on someone else.^[12] By 1899 Figueiredo marks it as obsolete and refers it to cambista, and Aulete and Michaelis call it little used in that sense.^[13][5][14]

In the 20th century the word took on technical senses in engineering: cambiador de calor, a heat exchanger, is in the first edition of Aurélio (1975).^[15][1]

Timeline

• 1275 – first record, spelt cãbiador.^[1]
• 1276 – a Latin charter has the byname canbeador.^[2]
• 1289 – canbadores, from cambar, in a document.^[2][1]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary lists Cambiador.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as a banker who exchanges money or bills.^[12]
• 1899 – Figueiredo marks the word as obsolete.^[13]
• 1975 – Aurélio's first edition has cambiador de calor “heat exchanger”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare) A person who exchanges money; a money-changer, cambista.^[1][14]
2. (rare) Someone or something that changes.^[5][14]
3. (engineering) Short for cambiador de calor, a heat exchanger that heats or cools a material by transferring heat; also called trocador de calor.^[1][16]
4. (electricity) cambiador de frequência, a device that converts the frequency of an alternating current or of incoming waves.^[1][14]
5. cambiador de discos, a record changer on a record player.^[14]

Adjective

1. (rare) That exchanges money or practises exchange.^[1]

Related words

• cambiar
• câmbio
• cambista
• cambar
• Latin cambio

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cambiador
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. cambiador
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cambiar
4. ^ 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, 63
5. ^ 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. cambiador
6. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cambiar
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cambiō
8. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cambiador
10. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cambiador
11. ^ 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. cambiador
12. ^ 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, 220
13. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. cambiador
14. ^ a b c d e 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. cambiador
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. s.v. cambiador
16. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cambiador