capela

Forms

capela f (plural capelas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cappella (“little cloak, chapel”), written Old Galician-Portuguese capela in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin noun is a diminutive of cappa (“hood, cape”).^[2][1]

Houaiss, following Machado, tells the story behind the word: Saint Martin divided his cloak with a beggar, and an oratory was later built to keep the relic, so that the word for the little cloak passed to the oratory and then to any oratory.^[2] The DCECH finds the Latin word in its proper sense about 660 and in the sense “chapel” at the beginning of the 8th century.^[4] The DHLF places the cloak at the court of the Frankish kings, from where the word passed to the treasury of royal relics and the palace oratory (788).^[5] The REW therefore puts the starting point of the word in France.^[6]

The same word is Galician capela, Spanish capilla, Catalan capella, Occitan capèla, French chapelle and Italian cappella.^[1][6]

The Latin base first appears at the end of the 6th century, in Gregory of Tours and Isidore of Seville, for a hood or other covering of the head, and its origin is unknown.^[7] Wiktionary mentions the theory that it is a shortening of capitulāre, from caput (“head”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria already use capela for a chapel: logo da capela u era metudo / non viu end' a porta “at once, from the chapel where he had been put, he saw no door out of it”.^[8] In the Crónica Troiana King Priam has a very noble and rich chapel built in honour of Minerva.^[8] The Crónica Geral still has the older sense “hood”, of a hood worn on the head.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss records capela “garland” from the 14th century, a sense he explains from the original idea of something that covers the head.^[2] Cunha's earliest dated example of the garland is from 1573.^[3] The phrase capela dos olhos “eyelid” dates from the 15th century, and in the backlands of the São Francisco river and the north-east of Brazil it is still the eyelid.^[2][9][10] Barbosa in 1611 has both capela do olho and capela de flores.^[11]

The musical sense comes from músicos da capela “musicians of the chapel”, turned into capela de músicos and then shortened to capela.^[2] In Lisbon stalls selling haberdashery were once set up in the courtyard of the royal chapel, hence capela “haberdashery shop” and capelista “haberdasher”.^[2][12] Brazil gave it the senses “small village” and “troop of monkeys”, and chemistry the “fume hood” of a laboratory.^[2][1]

Wiktionary lists descendants of the word in Konkani and Malayalam.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – capela “chapel” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[8][2]
• 13th century – the derivative capelão “chaplain”.^[3]
• 14th century – the spelling capella, and the sense “garland”.^[2]
• 14th century – capelania “chaplaincy”.^[3]
• 15th century – capela for the eyelid.^[2]
• 1525 – capela in the Memorial da Infanta Santa Joana.^[13]
• 1573 – capella “garland”.^[3]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists capela do olho and capela de flores.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small church with a single altar, usually dependent on a parish: a chapel, a hermitage (ermida).^[2][14][1]
2. A part of a church with its own altar, a side chapel: Acendeu uma vela na capela do Santíssimo.^[2][14]
3. A place of worship in a school, hospital, palace or private house.^[2][15]
4. (music) The body of singers and musicians attached to a church or court.^[2][14]
5. A garland or crown of flowers or leaves.^[2][12]
6. (Portugal, cooking) A small bunch of aromatic herbs used as seasoning.^[2]
7. (Brazil) A small village, a hamlet.^[2][12]
8. (Brazil) A troop of monkeys.^[2][12]
9. (Portugal, obsolete) Haberdashery and trinkets, and the shop that sells them.^[2][12]
10. (Portugal, informal) A tavern.^[2]
11. (architecture) The vault of an aqueduct gallery or of an oven.^[2][12]
12. (chemistry) A fume hood.^[2][1]
13. (old law) A perpetual charge on an estate to have Masses said for the soul of the testator.^[2][12]
14. capela dos olhos (regional): the eyelid (pálpebra).^[2][9]

Word family

• capelão
• capelania
• capelinha
• capelista

Related words

• capa
• capelo
• Late Latin cappella
• Spanish capilla
• French chapelle

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 u v w x y Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. capela
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. capela
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 833
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. chapelle
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1644
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 827
8. ^ a b c d 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. capela
9. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. capela
10. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. capela
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. capela
12. ^ a b c d e f g Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. capela
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. capela
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. capela
15. ^ 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. capela