cerco

Forms

cerco m (plural cercos)^[1] Houaiss records the 15th-century spellings çerco and cerquo.^[2]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Portuguese cercar, as Houaiss, Aurélio, the DLP and Nascentes explain it.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary calls the derivation from the verb possible.^[1] The verb comes from Late Latin circō (“to go round, go about”).^[6]

Adolfo Coelho and Meyer-Lübke derived the noun directly from Latin circus (“circle”), as Nascentes reports.^[5] Vieira too took it from that word, and gives "the circus of the ancients" as an obsolete sense, and Aurélio enters the old sense "ring, circle" separately, from the same Latin word.^[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the noun to the 13th century from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria it is a magic circle: cantiga 125 tells how a cleric drew a cerco and conjured up the devils (Como o crerigo fez un cerco e conjurou os diaboos).^[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense "siege" is dated by Houaiss and Cunha to the 14th century; the Crónica of 1344 says that the king, because his men could get no food, wanted to raise the siege (quiserasse el rey levantar do cerco).^[2][9][8] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders the word by Latin obsidio "siege", and Pereira (1697) refers it to curral, a pen for animals.^[10][11]

Morais (1789) lists the siege, the cattle pen, the ring of nets cast round fish, the circus of the ancients, a halo round the moon or sun, and figurative uses such as cerco de misérias.^[12] Hunting and fishing kept the ring of beaters closing on game and the circle of nets drawn tight round a shoal; the latter is still recorded in Portugal and Brazil.^[13][14] Figuratively the word means a series of events that repeat in order, or insistent pressure on someone.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record; the Cantigas de Santa Maria use it for a magic circle.^[2][8]
• 1344 – levantar do cerco "to raise the siege" in the Crónica of 1344.^[8]
• c. 1430 – cerco in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[15]
• 15th century – the spellings çerco and cerquo.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders cerco by Latin obsidio.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais records the ring of nets and the halo round the moon.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of surrounding or enclosing (cercar).^[2][3]
2. A ring or circle of things round something: um cerco de pedras.^[2]
3. Something that encloses a space; an enclosed place, enclosure; a pen for animals.^[2][13]
4. (military) A siege or blockade: o cerco de Lisboa.^[2][16][1]
5. (hunting) A ring of men closing round game.^[13][16]
6. (fishing) A set of nets cast in a circle and drawn tight round fish.^[3][14]
7. (figurative) A series of events that repeat in the same order.^[2][16]
8. (figurative) Insistent pressure on someone with attentions or requests.^[2][3]

Related words

• cerca
• cercado
• circo
• Latin circus

Usage notes

In zoology cerco is also a separate term, one of the paired jointed appendages at the end of the abdomen of many insects and other arthropods, from Greek kérkos "tail".^[2][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cerco
3. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cerco
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. cerco
5. ^ 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. 109
6. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cercar
7. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 2, 174
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. cerco
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cerco
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cerco
11. ^ 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. cerco
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c 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. cerco
14. ^ a b 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. cerco
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cerco
16. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cerco
17. ^ 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. cerco