coalho

Forms

coalho m (plural coalhos)^[1]

Etymology

Houaiss and Wiktionary take it as inherited from Latin coāgulum (“rennet, curdled milk”), as the popular form beside the learned coágulo.^[2][1][3] Wiktionary traces it through a syncopated Late Latin quāglum and Old Galician-Portuguese quallo.^[2][1][3] Cunha instead takes it as a deverbal noun from Portuguese coalhar.^[4]

The same Latin word is Galician callo, Spanish cuajo, Catalan quall, Occitan calh, Old French cail, Italian caglio and Romanian cheag.^[5][6][1]

The Latin noun is formed from cōgō (“to drive together”) with the instrument suffix -ulum, and that verb from con- and agō (“to drive”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date is Cardoso's dictionary of 1562; the 1569 edition renders the word with Latin coagulum.^[2][8] Cunha dates it to the 16th century.^[4] Pereira (1697) defines it as what makes milk curdle, that is, rennet.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) describes the rennet as a kind of curdled milk found in the stomach of a kid, and names the flower of the artichoke and other acids as curdling agents.^[10] His edition of 1813 adds a figurative sense, “bond”, as in a bond of friendship between people of different temper.^[11] Vieira records o tempo do coalho, the season good for making cheese.^[12] Today the word means a clot or curdled mass, the curdling agent itself (the flower of a thistle, the stomach of a ruminant), and figuratively money put aside.^[2][13] Navarro records it in north-eastern Brazil and Minas Gerais as an equivalent of coágulo.^[14]

Timeline

• 1562 – first recorded, in Cardoso's dictionary.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin coagulum.^[8]
• 1697 – Pereira defines it as what curdles milk.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais describes the rennet from a kid's stomach and the artichoke flower.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais adds the figurative sense “bond”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mass formed by a liquid that has curdled; a clot (coágulo); curd.^[2][3][1]
2. rennet, a substance that makes milk curdle (coalheira); also the stomach of a ruminant used for it, the abomasum.^[2][13][1]
3. The flower of a thistle (cardo), used to curdle milk.^[2][3]
4. The act or result of curdling.^[15][16]
5. (figurative) Money saved up.^[2][16]

Related words

• coágulo
• coalhada
• coalhar
• Latin coāgulum
• Spanish cuajo
• Galician callo

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. coalho
3. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. coalho
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. coagular
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2006
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. coagulum
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. coāgulum
8. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. coalho
9. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. coalho
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 405
12. ^ 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
13. ^ 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. coalho
14. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. coalho
15. ^ 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. coalho
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. coalho