caminho

Forms

caminho m (plural caminhos)^[1] Old forms: caminho, caminno and camyo in the 13th century, camiho in the 14th, camijnho in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *camminus (“way, road”), written Old Galician-Portuguese caminho and Old Galician-Portuguese caminno in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Houaiss, Cunha and Aurélio call the Latin word Celtic, and Wiktionary takes it from Gaulish *kamman.^[2][3][4][1] Corominas relates it to Old Irish céimm and Welsh cam (“step”).^[5] The Latin word is first documented in Spain in the 7th century, and the DHLF notes that it is not attested before a text of about 680.^[5][6] The DLE considers the Celtic word itself to be of Hispanic origin, comparing a Celtiberian form.^[7]

The same word is Galician camiño, Spanish camino, Catalan camí, Occitan camin, French chemin and Italian cammino; it survives in all the Romance languages except Romanian.^[8][5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[2][3] In the cantigas it means “road, way”, and caminho de “on the road to”: se vai cami[n]ho de Sẽa “he goes off on the road to Seia”.^[9] The cantigas also have roubar caminhos “to rob on the roads”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) distinguishes the public road, estrada real, from the neighbourhood road.^[10] Morais (1789) adds the distance between two places measured by the time it takes, the figurative “way of life” (o caminho da virtude) and “the means of attaining an end”.^[11] Caldas Aulete records caminho de ferro “railway”, still the usual term in Portugal.^[12]

Modern senses include “direction, course”, “trend of events”, the nautical “course” and, in computing, a “path”.^[2][13] Brazilian caminho da roça is a path wide enough for one person, and hence “single file”.^[2] The word passed into the creoles as kaminhu in Kabuverdianu and Guinea-Bissau Creole and kaminda in Papiamentu.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, as caminho, caminno and camyo.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the spelling camiho; first records of caminhante.^[2][3]
• 1416 – caminho in the Vida do Cativo Monge Confesso.^[14]
• 15th century – the spelling camijnho; first record of descaminhado.^[2][3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Caminho with Latin iter and via.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists caminho publico.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais adds the figurative senses.^[11]
• 1899 – Figueiredo derives the word from Low Latin, from Celtic.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A path or track between two places: Seguiram por um caminho entre os pinheiros.^[2][4][1]
2. A road or way built for traffic, especially a local road in the country.^[2][17]
3. The distance to be covered: Ainda falta muito caminho.^[2][4]
4. route, itinerary: o caminho marítimo para a Índia.^[2][13]
5. Direction, course: tomar o caminho do sul.^[2][4]
6. (figurative) A way or means of achieving something.^[2][1]
7. The course or trend of events.^[2]
8. (nautical) A ship's course, rumo.^[18][13]
9. (computing) A path through a network or a program.^[13]

Word family

• caminhante
• caminhar
• caminheiro
• descaminhado

Related words

• Galician camiño
• Spanish camino

Usage notes

Set phrases include a caminho de “on the way to”, meio caminho andado “half the battle won”, arrepiar caminho “to turn back” and caminho de cabras “a steep, rough track”.^[1][17][18] In Portugal caminho de ferro is the railway.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. caminho
3. ^ 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. caminho
4. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. caminho
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 787
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. chemin
7. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. camino
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1552
9. ^ 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. caminho
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caminho
11. ^ 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, 221
12. ^ a b 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. caminho
13. ^ a b c d 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. caminho
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. caminho
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caminho
16. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. caminho
17. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1709
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. caminho