coar

Forms

coar (first-person singular present coo, first-person singular preterite coei, past participle coado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote collar;^[2][3] acoar is recorded in the 15th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cōlō (“to strain, filter”), written Old Galician-Portuguese collar in the oldest texts.^[4][2][1] The Latin verb is formed from cōlum (“strainer”), a sieve of rushes or wicker for oil, milk and wine.^[4][5][1]

The same Latin verb is Galician coar, Spanish colar, Catalan colar, French couler and Italian colare.^[6][1] The DHLF calls the Latin noun a technical word of country speech without a clear etymology.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's earliest record is the Crónica Troiana, where the salt sea water uayse collando et adoçando “goes filtering and turning sweet”; another manuscript has coando.^[3] Houaiss dates the verb to the 14th century, Cunha the form coar to the 15th.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712) defines the verb as passing a liquid through a cloth or a narrow passage, and adds “to slip away through a crowd”.^[8] Folqman (1755) records coar “to turn pale”, as the blood leaves the face, a sense still noted in the dialects of Portugal.^[9][10] Morais (1789) adds the wind that gets into a house through the cracks.^[11] Vieira has the metalworking sense, to pour molten metal into a mould, and Figueiredo records “to come in gently, little by little”.^[12][5] The DLP also records the sense “to castrate”.^[13]

Timeline

• 14th century – collando in the Crónica Troiana;^[3][2] Cunha also dates collar to this century.^[3][2]
• 15th century – coar and acoar.^[2]
• 16th century – the back-formation coa.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists Coar with Latin colo.^[14]
• 1712 – Bluteau adds “to slip away through a crowd”.^[8]
• 1844 – first record of coador.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To strain, filter: to pass through a strainer, cloth or sieve: coar o caldo.^[4][15][1]
2. To let through, filter (light, air): As persianas coavam a claridade da tarde.^[4][15]
3. To let fall drop by drop.^[4][15]
4. (metalworking) To pour (molten metal) into a mould.^[15][16]
5. (reflexive) To slip in little by little; to creep in, insinuate oneself.^[15][16]
6. To pass or hand over on the sly.^[16][17]
7. To castrate.^[13]

Word family

• coa
• coador

Related words

• escoar
• Latin cōlum
• Spanish colar

Usage notes

Vieira records the saying coar mosquitos e engulir camelos “to strain out gnats and swallow camels”, of someone scrupulous in small matters who ignores great ones.^[12]

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 Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. coar
3. ^ 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. collar
4. ^ a b c d e f Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. coar
5. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 308
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2035
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. couler
8. ^ 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. coar
9. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. coar
10. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. coar
11. ^ 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
12. ^ 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, 254
13. ^ 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. coar
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. coar
15. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. coar
16. ^ 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. coar
17. ^ 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. coar