chuva

Forms

chuva f (plural chuvas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote chovia, chuvia and chuvha;^[2][3][4] Houaiss records chuva, chujua, chuiva and chuvea in the 14th century.^[2][3][4] Chuiva and choiva survive in the dialects.^[5][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pluvia (“rain”), written Old Galician-Portuguese chuvia and Old Galician-Portuguese chovia in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin ⟨pl-⟩ appears as ⟨ch-⟩.^[2][1] Nascentes, following Nunes, explains the vowel: the /i/ of the last syllable was attracted into the stressed one, the short /u/ became /o/ and then went back to /u/ under the influence of the /v/, and the diphthong /ui/ of Old Galician-Portuguese chuiva was later reduced to /u/.^[5]

The same Latin word is Galician choiva, Spanish lluvia and Asturian chuvia;^[6][1][7] French pluie, Italian pioggia and Romanian ploaie continue a variant *ploia.^[6][1][7]

In Latin the noun is the feminine of the adjective pluvius (“rainy”) used alone, short for “rainy weather”, from the verb pluō (“to rain”).^[1][8][9] De Vaan traces the verb to *pleu- (“to swim, float”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, in the song of a drought (no. 143): the people ask the Virgin que lles desse chovia “to give them rain”, and tan gran chuvia then falls.^[10][4] The Galician Crónica Troiana has a chuvia era tã grãde et tã espessa “the rain was so great and so thick”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Geral of 1344 already writes chuva, with como as gotas de chuva “like drops of rain”.^[10] The Inéditos de Alcobaça have huua grande chuiva, a form Nunes found still in the dialects.^[5]

Bluteau describes the “miraculous” rains of hard, liquid or soft matter, and Morais records chuva de pedras for hail and the figurative “shower” of anything falling thickly.^[11][12] Modern senses extend this to any great quantity arriving at once (uma chuva de cartas) and to the speckled interference on a television picture.^[2][13] In hot regions the plural chuvas is the rainy season; in Guinea-Bissau Portuguese a chuva is the period from one rainy season to the next, that is, a year.^[2]

In Brazilian informal speech chuva is drunkenness, and estar na chuva means “to be drunk”.^[2][14][15]

The word passed into the Portuguese-based creoles: Kabuverdianu tchuva, Guinea-Bissau Creole tcuba and Saramaccan tjúba.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century, second half – chovia and chuvia in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[10][4]
• 1344 – the Crónica Geral writes chuva.^[10]
• 1500 – first record of the derivative chuvaceiro;^[3] chuveiro follows in the 16th century.^[3]
• 1611 – Barbosa renders Chuva by Latin pluvia and imber.^[16]
• 1712 – Bluteau's dictionary describes rain as vapour condensed in the air.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais records chuva de pedras.^[12]
• 1836 – first record of chuvisco “drizzle”, in Constâncio's dictionary.^[3]
• 1899 – first record of chuvada “downpour”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. rain, the water that falls from the clouds in drops when the water vapour in the air condenses: Ontem caiu chuva toda a tarde.^[2][13][1]
2. Rainwater: Guardam a chuva num tanque.^[2][17]
3. (usually in the plural) The rainy season in hot regions.^[2]
4. (Guinea-Bissau) The period from one rainy season to the next, a year.^[2]
5. Anything that falls like rain, such as dust, splinters or petals: uma chuva de faíscas.^[2][13]
6. (figurative) A great quantity of something arriving in a short time; a shower: uma chuva de críticas.^[2][15]
7. (television) Speckled interference on the screen.^[2]
8. (Brazil, informal) drunkenness.^[2][15]
9. The sparks or balls of fire thrown out by a firework.^[15]

Word family

• chuvada
• chuvaceiro
• chuveiro
• chuveirada
• chuvisco

Related words

• chover
• pluvial
• Latin pluvia
• Galician choiva
• Spanish lluvia

Usage notes

Chuva ácida is acid rain, rain carrying acid particles from industrial smoke.^[17] In Brazilian informal speech estar na chuva is “to be drunk”.^[2][14]

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 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. chuva
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. chuva
4. ^ a b c d e 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. chuvia
5. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 116
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pluvia
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pluuia
9. ^ a b 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 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. chovia
11. ^ 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. chuva
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 394
13. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. chuva
14. ^ 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. chuva
15. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. chuva
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. chuva
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. chuva