cerviz

Forms

cerviz f (plural cervizes)^[1] Medieval texts spell the word serviz (13th century), çeruys (14th century) and cervis (15th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cervix (“neck, nape”), through its accusative, stressed on the second syllable.^[2][3][1] The oldest texts write it Old Galician-Portuguese serviz and Old Galician-Portuguese çeruys.^[2] The learned cervice and the anatomical term spelt like the Latin word are doublets of it.^[2][1] Huber treats the word in his grammar of Old Portuguese.^[4]

The same Latin word is Spanish cerviz, Old French cerviz, Old Occitan cervitz, Italian cervice and Romanian cerbice.^[5] Meyer-Lübke doubts that it was inherited everywhere, but Corominas judges it a hereditary word in Spanish and Portuguese, as its derivatives show, while noting that in Spanish it now belongs to an elevated style.^[5][6]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear: one hypothesis, given by Wiktionary, analyses it as a compound of a word for “head” and the root of vinciō (“to bind”), literally “where the head turns”; de Vaan calls such an analysis semantically very doubtful, and finds no clear analysis of the first part.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded from the 13th century, spelt serviz, in the medieval texts indexed by Cunha, with the sense “back of the neck”.^[2][3] Morais's dictionary of 1789 quotes Camões using it of a neck that has not yet thrown off the yoke.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From “nape” the word came to mean the neck as a whole and the head.^[2][9] Phrases of biblical or classical origin keep it alive in a raised style.^[6] Morais records povo de dura cerviz “a stiff-necked people”, that is, untameable and incorrigible.^[8] The figure of bending or shaking the neck gave dobrar a cerviz “to submit” and sacudir a cerviz “to rebel”, already in the original Caldas Aulete with a line of Camões.^[10][2] The dictionaries also give it the sense “top of a tree, summit of a hill”.^[10][11] Houaiss dates the anatomical sense “narrowed part of an organ”, as in a cerviz do útero, to the 19th century; that sense is now usually expressed by the learned doublet cérvix.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – first recorded, spelt serviz.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the spelling çeruys.^[2][3]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as “neck, nape” and records povo de dura cerviz.^[8]
• 19th century – the anatomical sense “neck of an organ”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The back of the neck; the nape (nuca, cachaço).^[2][9][12]
2. By extension, the neck (pescoço) as a whole; also the head.^[2][9]
3. (figurative) Pride, unbending spirit, in phrases such as cerviz dura “firmness, rebelliousness”.^[2][10][1]
4. (anatomy) The narrowed part of an organ, its neck; in insects, the membranous part between head and prothorax.^[2]
5. The crown of a tree or the highest point of a hill.^[2][11]

Related words

• cérvix
• cervice
• cervical
• Latin cervix
• Spanish cerviz

Usage notes

Set phrases: dobrar or curvar a cerviz “to submit, give in”, and sacudir or levantar a cerviz “to throw off a yoke, rebel”.^[2][13][11]

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 q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cerviz
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cerviz
4. ^ Huber, Joseph (1933), Altportugiesisches Elementarbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. § 222
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1848
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 57
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c 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, 258
9. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cerviz
10. ^ 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. cerviz
11. ^ a b c 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. cerviz
12. ^ 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. cerviz
13. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cerviz