carga

Forms

carga f (plural cargas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had carrega (13th century), carga (1339), carega and carregua (14th century).^[2]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Portuguese carregar (“to load, to carry”): the old form was the proparoxytone Old Galician-Portuguese carrega, from which the present form was shortened.^[2][3][4][1] Houaiss calls the origin disputed.^[2] Aurélio and Nascentes take the noun from an old verb Old Galician-Portuguese cargar, a syncopated form of the same verb.^[5][2] In his fuller dictionary Nascentes derives it instead from a Latin noun Late Latin carrica, which replaced the classical Latin onus (“load”); he notes that the REW derives all these forms from the verbs that continue the Latin verb.^[6]

The verb goes back to carricō (“to load a cart”), which Houaiss gives as a reconstruction but which Corominas finds in the Visigothic laws and other texts of the period; it is formed on carrus (“wagon”).^[2][7][1] The Latin noun is a word of Celtic origin, from Gaulish.^[8][7][1]

The Spanish noun carga is recorded from 1220–1250, beside the verb cargar.^[9] The Italian one is carica.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates carrega to the 13th century.^[2] Lorenzo's first record of carga is a customs rule of 1339 on cloth taken out of the town: sse os leuarem por fora da villa da carga sejs djnheiros polla sahida da foz “if they carry them out of the town, six dinheiros a load for going out by the river mouth”.^[10] The word was thus first a load as a unit for tolls.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages carga was a measure: Viterbo describes a greater load (a mule's or horse's, ten arrobas), a lesser one (a donkey's, five arrobas) and a cartload.^[11] Galician records of Santiago use it as a measure of firewood and for the duty that comes with an office.^[10] Barbosa (1611) has bestas de carga “beasts of burden”, and Bluteau (1712–1728) navio de carga “cargo ship”.^[12][13]

Morais (1789) adds the measure of powder and shot that loads a firearm and the charge against the enemy.^[14] Figueiredo (1899) lists an accumulation of electricity, the source of the sense in physics.^[15] Figurative senses (a burden, a responsibility, a feeling of oppression) and informal ones (a beating, drunkenness; in one regional use, the police; a foul tackle in Brazilian football) complete the modern range.^[2] In Ceará a carga is a measure of one hundred blocks of raw sugar.^[16]

Timeline

• 13th century – the older form carrega.^[2][3]
• 1339 – first record of carga, in a customs rule.^[10]
• 14th century – the spellings carega and carregua.^[2]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) uses carga.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists bestas de carga.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais records the load of a firearm and the military charge.^[14]
• 1798 – Viterbo describes the medieval measures carga maior and carga menor.^[11]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the electrical sense.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of loading (carregar): a carga e a descarga do navio.^[2][18]
2. A load or cargo: what is carried by a person, an animal, a vehicle or a ship.^[2][5][1]
3. A large quantity: uma carga de trabalho.^[2]
4. (figurative) A burden, a responsibility or an expense.^[2][5]
5. (figurative) A feeling of oppression.^[2]
6. An impetuous charge, an attack: a carga dos cavaleiros contra a infantaria.^[2][19]
7. (informal) A beating (surra).^[2][20]
8. The charge of a firearm; the explosive used for a given purpose.^[2][21][1]
9. (physics) An electric charge, an excess or lack of electrons.^[21][1]
10. (Brazil, football) A foul tackle to bring an opponent down.^[2]

Word family

• monta-cargas

Related words

• carregar
• cargo
• carro
• Latin carrus
• Spanish carga

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. carga
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. carga
4. ^ 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. carga
5. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. carga
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. 99
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 868
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. carrus
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cargar
10. ^ 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. carga
11. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 236
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. carga
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. carga
14. ^ 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, 234
15. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. carga
16. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. carga
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. carga
18. ^ 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. carga
19. ^ 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. carga
20. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. carga
21. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1813