cepo

Forms

cepo m (plural cepos)^[1] The Crónica Geral writes çepo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cippus (“post, boundary stone”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cepo in the oldest texts.^[3][4][1] Houaiss gives the Latin senses “boundary marker”, “funerary column”, “barrier of tree trunks” and, by extension, “obstacle”.^[3] The soldiers of Caesar's time already used the Latin word for sharpened stakes hidden in pits to stop the enemy, which led to the sense of a trap that catches an animal by the legs.^[5] Medieval Latin writes it ceppus and uses it for a tree stump, the stocks of a prison and an alms box.^[6] The learned doublet is cipo.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician cepo, Spanish cepo, Catalan cep, Italian ceppo, French cep and Romanian cep.^[7][1] The mushroom French cèpe comes from Gascon cep “trunk”, for its thick stalk.^[8]

De Vaan reconstructs *keipo-, perhaps from *(s)ḱeip-o- (“pole, stick”), and compares शेप (śépa, “tail, penis”) and scīpiō (“staff”); the double p would then follow the rule seen in littera beside ⟨lītera⟩.^[9] Wiktionary notes that the alternation of short i with pp and long ī with p is hard to explain and may point to another Italic dialect or a substrate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use the word for the wooden stocks of a prisoner: logo ll'o cepo caeu en terra “at once the stocks fell from him to the ground”, and of another man tĩia a garganta no cepo “he had his neck in the stocks”.^[2] Earlier still, the foros of 1188–1230, written in Latin, say that a man is to be put in cepo.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the Crónica Geral a knight who has run out of weapons breaks a branch off an olive tree and fights with it, cõ aquel çepo “with that log”.^[2] Cunha's gloss for the medieval word is “branch of a tree”.^[4] A cantiga d'escarnho of Johan Garcia de Guilhade uses cepo contemptuously for a stringed instrument, the citole.^[2][10]

Cardoso (1569) has the trap, Barbosa (1611) the shackle for the feet and the trap for birds, and Pereira (1697) the trunk.^[11][12][13] Bluteau (1712) adds the carpenter's planes and an iron trap for thieves, and Morais (1789) the block of the old artillery, the hollow column for alms in churches and “a man without sense”.^[14][15] Modern dictionaries add the butcher's block, the piano's pin block, the anchor stock and, in Brazil, a brake shoe.^[3][16]

Timeline

• 1188–1230 – in cepo “in the stocks” in the Latin foros.^[2]
• 1237 – Cepo as a place name.^[2]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use cepo for the stocks.^[2][4]
• 14th century – çepo “log” in the Crónica Geral.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso: a trap.^[11]
• 1611 – Barbosa: fetters for the feet; a trap for birds and other animals.^[12]
• 1712 – Bluteau: the trunk of a felled tree, carpenter's planes, traps.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais adds the alms column in churches and “a man without sense”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A log, a piece of tree trunk cut across.^[3][16][1]
2. The stump and roots left in the ground after a tree is felled, used as firewood or for charcoal; cepa.^[3][17]
3. A thick block of wood: the block on which a butcher cuts meat, or on which a condemned person laid his head to be beheaded.^[3][17]
4. (informal, figurative) A slow, idle person; a dull, stupid one.^[3][18][1]
5. A clog or trambolho tied to a leg or the neck of a domestic animal to stop it straying.^[3][18]
6. (history) The stocks, a block with holes in which prisoners' feet were held; hence punishment.^[3][19][1]
7. The part of a plough beside the share that also enters the soil.^[3][20][1]
8. (architecture) In churches, a hollow box or column for alms (esmola).^[3][16]
9. (carpentry) A plane (plaina) with a convex sole; the wooden stock in which the iron of a plane is fixed.^[3][16]
10. (Brazil, engineering) A brake shoe pressed directly against the wheels.^[3][16]
11. (nautical) The stock of an anchor (âncora).^[3][21]
12. (music) The pin block of a piano or harpsichord; the lower end of the neck of a stringed instrument, joined to the body.^[3][19]
13. A trap (armadilha) for catching animals.^[3][16][1]

Word family

• cepa
• decepar

Related words

• cipo
• cepilho
• Galician cepo

Usage notes

Cepo de paciência is a very patient person.^[3] In Rio Grande do Sul the cepo colombiano or cepo de campanha was a punishment in which the victim was tied to a log in forced positions, and a cepo is also a rough stool made of a log on three legs.^[3][22] In the Douro Litoral a cepo is a wooden vessel used as a measure for wine.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. cepo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cepo
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cepo
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 39
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. cippus
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cippus
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. cèpe
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. cippus
10. ^ 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. cepo
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cepo
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cepo
13. ^ 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. cepo
14. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cepo
15. ^ 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, 255
16. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cepo
17. ^ a b 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. cepo
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cepo
19. ^ 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. cepo
20. ^ 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. cepo
21. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1955
22. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. cepo