chave

Forms

chave f (plural chaves)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote chaue and chave; a 14th-century text has the Latinising claue.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin clāvis (“key, bar”), written Old Galician-Portuguese chaue in the oldest Portuguese record, of 1277.^[2][3][1] The Latin group /kl/ at the start of the word changed to ⟨ch⟩, as Vieira already explained in 1871.^[4] The standard pronunciation is /ʃ/, while northern Portugal has /tʃ/.^[1] Houaiss calls the word the popular divergent of the learned clave, which comes from the same Latin word.^[2][1]

The same Latin word is Galician chave, Spanish llave, Catalan clau, French clé, Italian chiave and Romanian cheie.^[5][1] García de Diego records the Portuguese and Galician form beside the Aragonese and Catalan form clau.^[6] The Spanish word is recorded from the earliest Castilian texts, and Berceo still wrote Old Spanish clave.^[7][8]

The Latin word goes back to *klāwis (“bar, bolt”), from *kleh₂w- (“to close”), and is related to κλείς (kleís, “bar, bolt; key”).^[9][1] Wiktionary glosses the root as a hook or pin of the kind once used to fasten doors, and notes that the word may have reached Latin through Greek.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is of 1277, spelt chaue.^[2] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the word is used both literally, for keys worn at the belt (chaves, que tragia na cinta), and figuratively: Eve shut the heavens sen chave “without a key”, and the Virgin is chav' é de nossa fe “the key of our faith”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense of a means of access or of authority goes back to the medieval language.^[10] Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 already lists chave feytiça, a false key.^[11] Bluteau describes the parts of a key, and Folqman (1755) lists chave mestra, the key that opens many locks.^[12][13][14] Morais (1789) adds the figurative chave mestra of the sciences and the sense of a stronghold that commands a pass or a stretch of sea.^[14] In land surveys a chave was a corner or point the ground makes to one side, recorded in a document of 1482.^[15]

Later dictionaries extend the word to any tool for tightening or loosening screws and nuts, to the device for winding a clock, to the keys of wind instruments and to the curly bracket.^[16][17][2] Modern senses include a password or cryptographic key, a group in a tournament and, used after another noun, “essential, decisive” (palavra-chave).^[1][18]

Timeline

• 1277 – first record, spelt chaue.^[2]
• 13th century – chave and chaves in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[10]
• 1482 – a document uses chave for a corner of a plot of land.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists chave feytiça, a false key.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau derives the word from Latin clavis and Greek kleis.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais records chave mestra and the military sense of a key position.^[14]
• 1871 – Vieira explains the change of Latin cl- to ch-.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A key, the metal instrument put into a lock to move its bolt and open or close it.^[2][17][1]
2. (figurative) Possession or control of a place or business, often in the plural: handing over the keys of a shop.^[2]
3. (figurative) A symbol of authority or power: the keys of a city, of the Church.^[2][19]
4. (figurative) What gives access to understanding or solving something; the essential element of a system: the key to a riddle, to success.^[2][1]
5. A spanner or any tool for tightening, loosening or fixing screws and nuts: chave de fendas “screwdriver”.^[2][17][1]
6. The device used to wind a clock.^[2][20]
7. (music) A movable key that opens or closes a hole of a wind instrument; a tuning wrench.^[2][17][1]
8. (military) A position that commands a territory or a passage.^[21][16]
9. (typography) A curly bracket, { or }.^[1][20]
10. (computing, cryptography) A password; a string used to encrypt or decrypt.^[1]
11. (sports) A group of teams or players in a tournament.^[1]
12. (electricity) A switch.^[1][17]

Adjective

1. Essential, decisive, of central importance, used after a noun: uma testemunha chave.^[18][1]

Word family

• chavão
• chaveiro
• chavear
• chaveamento
• chaveta
• palavra-chave

Related words

• clave
• clavícula
• conclave
• cravelha
• Latin clāvis
• Galician chave
• Spanish llave

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. chave
3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. chave
4. ^ a b 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, 199
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1981
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. clavis
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 725
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. llave
9. ^ 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. chave
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. chave
12. ^ 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. chave
13. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. chave
14. ^ 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, 264
15. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 22
16. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 286
17. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. chave
18. ^ 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. chave
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. chave
20. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2016
21. ^ 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. chave