cintura

Forms

cintura f (plural cinturas)^[1] Medieval texts write çintura and çentura (14th century) and çimtura (15th century); cintura is first recorded in the 15th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cinctūra (“a girdle, a means of girding”), written Old Galician-Portuguese çintura and Old Galician-Portuguese çentura in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin noun is formed from cinctus, the past participle of cingō (“to gird”), with the suffix -tūra.^[2][5][1] Classical Latin used it rarely, for the girding of a garment, and Medieval Latin has it for a belt.^[5][6]

The same Latin word is Spanish cintura, Catalan cintura, Italian cintura, French ceinture and Romanian centură.^[1][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Galician Crónica Troiana of the 14th century has the word for the waist: a blow lle cortou o braço et os costados ata a çintura “cut off his arm and his ribs down to the waist”, and a hero is delgado ẽna çintura “slim at the waist”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the waist, the word came to mean the part of a garment that fits round it, and a belt or girdle.^[9][10] Vieira quotes Fernão Lopes's chronicle of King Fernando, where something is tied derredor de si pella çimtura “around himself at the waist”.^[9] Anatomy uses the word for the bony girdles that join the limbs to the trunk, cintura escapular and cintura pélvica.^[2][11] In Portugal it also names a belt of land or buildings around a city, as in cintura industrial.^[12][13] In wrestling it is a hold round the opponent's waist.^[14]

Timeline

• 14th century – çintura and çentura in the Crónica Troiana.^[4][2]
• 15th century – the spellings çimtura and cintura.^[3][2]
• 1513 – cintura in the Livro dos Mártires.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses the word with Latin medium corporis “the middle of the body”.^[16]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as the part of the body where one is girded.^[17]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira adds the senses “belt” and “waist of a dress”.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The waist, the narrowest part of the human trunk, between the ribs and the hips: Tem uma cintura muito fina.^[2][14][1]
2. The waistline of a garment, the part that goes round the waist; the waistband (cós).^[14][18]
3. The measurement round the waist.^[2]
4. (anatomy) A bony girdle that joins a pair of limbs to the trunk: cintura escapular, cintura pélvica.^[2][11]
5. A narrow middle part of an object.^[18]
6. (Portugal) A ring of land or buildings around a city: cintura industrial.^[12][13]
7. (wrestling) A hold that grips the opponent round the waist to lift and throw him.^[14]

Related words

• cinto
• cinta
• cingir
• Latin cinctūra
• Spanish cintura

Usage notes

Brazilian popular speech calls a very slim waist cintura de vespa “wasp waist”, also cintura de pilão and cintura de tanajura.^[14]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cintura
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cintura
4. ^ 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. çintura
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cinctūra
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. cinctura
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ceinture
9. ^ a b c 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, 234
10. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. cintura
11. ^ a b 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. cintura
12. ^ 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. cintura
13. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2099
14. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cintura
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cintura
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cintura
17. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cintura
18. ^ 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. cintura