casa

Forms

casa f (plural casas)^[1] Houaiss records quasa in 1278, caza in 1352 and cassa in the 14th century;^[2][1] Wiktionary lists caza.^[2][1] A short form cas is found in the cantigas.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin casa (“hut, cottage”), written Old Galician-Portuguese casa in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] In Latin the word meant a humble dwelling or hovel; the ordinary word for “house” was domus.^[2][5]

The same Latin word is Galician casa, Spanish casa, Catalan casa, Italian casa and Romanian casă, and French chez (“at the house of”) continues it.^[6][7][1] Spanish has a reduced form in the phrase en cas de (“at the house of”).^[8]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[9][1] An older view derives it from *kat- (“to plait”); de Vaan finds a link with European words for “hut” from *ket- or *kot- also possible, but because of the Latin /a/ and the single /s/ after a short vowel he thinks it more likely a loanword.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters already have the word in its Romance sense: casas in 870 and kasa in 906, Lorenzo notes.^[10] Houaiss dates the Portuguese word to 1221, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it for a dwelling (levó-o a ssa casa “took him to his house”) and also for a room (hũa casa escura “a dark room”).^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the plural casas was often used for one building, as in Spanish;^[8] Corominas cites a 13th-century Galician-Portuguese line, aquelas casas u mia senhor vi “that house where I saw my lady”.^[8] Barbosa (1611) has the phrases casa d'esgrima “fencing school”, casa de relação “high court” and casa de mancebia “brothel”.^[11] Folqman (1755) has casa de botão “buttonhole” and casa “family, lineage”.^[12]

In Portugal the word also means a room of a dwelling (casa de banho “bathroom”, casa de jantar “dining room”).^[2] Other senses are a commercial firm, a public office (Casa da Moeda “the Mint”), a square of a chessboard, a decimal place, and a decade of age (na casa dos trinta “in one's thirties”).^[2][1]

The word passed into the creoles: kasa in Kabuverdianu and Guinea-Bissau Creole, kaza in Kristang and ka in Papiamentu.^[1]

Timeline

• 870 – casas in a Latin charter.^[10]
• 1221 – first record of the Portuguese word.^[2]
• 1278 – the spelling quasa.^[2]
• 1352 – the spelling caza.^[2]
• c. 1400 – a fragment of a Flos Sanctorum (witness 1380–1425), the first CTA text with the word.^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists casa d'esgrima, casa de relação and casa de mancebia.^[11]
• 1755 – Folqman lists casa de botão “buttonhole”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A house, a building for people to live in.^[2][1][14]
2. (Portugal) A room of a dwelling: casa de banho.^[2][14]
3. home, one's own dwelling: Ela já voltou para casa.^[1][15]
4. The household or family; a noble or royal dynasty: a Casa de Bragança.^[2][1]
5. The goods and affairs of a household.^[2]
6. A commercial firm or shop; a public office.^[2][1][15]
7. A compartment of a box or shelf; a square of a chessboard or of a printed form.^[2][1]
8. A buttonhole.^[2][16]
9. A decimal place; a decade of age: na casa dos quarenta.^[2][1]
10. The audience at a show: casa cheia.^[2]
11. (church) A convent or monastery.^[2]

Word family

• casinha
• casarão
• casebre
• caseiro
• casario
• casar
• casamento
• casado
• casamenteiro
• casadouro

Related words

• casal
• acasalar
• Latin casa
• French chez

Usage notes

Wiktionary lists many compounds, such as casa de câmbio “bureau de change”, casa de campo “country house” and casa de saúde “private hospital”.^[1] Schlee records the gaúcho phrase ser de casa “to be one of the family, stand on no ceremony”.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. casa
3. ^ 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. casa
4. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. casa
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. chez
8. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 901
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c 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. casa
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. casa
12. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. casa
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. casa
14. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. casa
15. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1855
16. ^ 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. casa
17. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. casa