cera

Forms

cera f (plural ceras)^[1] Houaiss records çera in the 14th century and çerra in 1391.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cēra (“wax”), with the same form Old Galician-Portuguese cera in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The same Latin word is Galician cera, Spanish cera, Catalan cera, Italian cera, French cire and Romanian ceară.^[1][4][5]

Houaiss and Cunha derive the Latin word from Ancient Greek κηρός (kērós, “wax”).^[2][3] De Vaan thinks it is probably a loan into Latin, either from Greek or from an unknown language: if the Doric form with long /aː/ is reliable, Latin took it from there.^[6] He compares Lithuanian korỹs (“honeycomb”) and Latvian kâres.^[6] Wiktionary also compares Albanian qiri and calls the word a loan from a substrate language.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of ũa omagen de cera “an image of wax”, and of de cera semellança “a likeness in wax” of a bird.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Beeswax for candles and votive images was the medieval sense, and by metonymy the word came to mean a candle or torch.^[7][2] Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 records the proverb Cera sobeja queyma a Igreja “too much wax burns the church down”, which he matches with Cicero's summum ius, summa iniuria.^[8] Bluteau describes how bees gather wax and build their cells with it, and Morais adds earwax.^[9][10] In Portugal cera was also an old weight, about three and a half arráteis, and an annual payment that certain churches made to their bishop.^[2][10]

Figurative uses grew from the softness and pallor of wax: a docile, pliable person, a sickly pale face, and a lazy piece of work.^[2][11] Brazilian informal speech uses fazer cera for stalling, as when a football team wastes time, and the word also means courtship.^[2][12] Nheengatu borrowed the word as sera.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – omagen de cera in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[7][2]
• 1391 – the spelling çerra.^[2]
• c. 1430 – cera in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses the word with Latin cera.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa records the proverb Cera sobeja queyma a Igreja.^[8]
• 1813 – Morais adds the sense “earwax”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. beeswax, the soft yellowish substance bees secrete to build their honeycombs: uma vela de cera.^[2][15][1]
2. Any similar substance of plant, animal or mineral origin, wax; a polish made from it for floors, furniture or shoes.^[2][16]
3. A wax candle (vela), a torch.^[2][15]
4. earwax, cerume.^[12][1]
5. (zoology) The cere, the bare skin at the base of a bird's upper beak.^[2][16]
6. (figurative) A soft, pliable thing; a docile or weak-willed person.^[2][15]
7. (Brazil, informal) Needless delay, stalling: fazer cera “to stall, to waste time”.^[2][12]
8. (Brazil, informal) Courtship.^[2][15]

Word family

• encerar
• cerol

Related words

• cerume
• céreo
• Latin cēra
• Spanish cera

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. cera
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cera
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1831
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ 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. cera
8. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cera
9. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cera
10. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 374
11. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. cera
12. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cera
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cera
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cera
15. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cera
16. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1957