coalhar

Forms

coalhar (first-person singular present coalho, first-person singular preterite coalhei, past participle coalhado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote qualhar and coallar;^[2][3][1] Houaiss dates coalhar from the 15th century.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *coāglō (“to curdle”), the syncopated form of Latin coāgulō (“to curdle”), written Old Galician-Portuguese qualhar and Old Galician-Portuguese coallar in the oldest texts.^[2][1] Houaiss, Cunha and Figueiredo describe it as the popular form of the verb whose learned doublet is coagular.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician callar, Spanish cuajar, French cailler and Italian quagliare.^[5][1] The Latin verb is formed from coāgulum (“rennet, curdled milk”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the form qualhar to the 14th century.^[2][3] By the 16th century the derivatives coalhado and coalho are recorded, and Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 translates the verb with Latin coagulo.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant to curdle milk with rennet, and Barbosa (1611) also records the rennet of a kid used to do it.^[8] Morais (1789) adds “to freeze” and the figurative “to cover a surface”, quoting Camões on the Moorish boats that covered the sea.^[9] Vieira has “to fill”, as in filling a book with nonsense.^[10] Houaiss and Michaelis also have “to accumulate little by little”, of wealth.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 14th century – qualhar.^[2][3]
• 15th century – the spelling coalhar.^[2]
• 16th century – the derivatives coalhado and coalho.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists Coalhar with Latin coagulo.^[7]
• c. 1608 – first record of descoalhar.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais records the figurative “to cover a surface”, with a line of Camões.^[9]
• 1813 – the learned doublet coagular in Morais's second edition, after Cunha.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To curdle, coagulate;^[2][12][1] (intransitive and reflexive) to thicken into a solid or half-solid mass: O leite coalhou com o calor.^[2][12][1]
2. To cover or fill completely, to crowd: Os barcos coalhavam a baía.^[2][12][11]
3. To pile up little by little, to accumulate.^[2][11]

Word family

• coalhada
• coalhado
• coalheira
• descoalhar

Related words

• coalho
• coagular
• coágulo
• Latin coāgulum
• Spanish cuajar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. coalhar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. coagular
4. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 307
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2005
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. coāgulō
7. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. coalhar
8. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. coalhar
9. ^ 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, 280
10. ^ 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, 254
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. coalhar
12. ^ a b c 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. coalhar