corda

Forms

corda f (plural cordas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin chorda (“gut; string of a musical instrument; rope”), from Ancient Greek χορδή (khordḗ, “guts, tripe; string of gut”).^[2][3][1][4] Latin took the word first as a technical term for the string of an instrument, and in late Latin it became a synonym of fūnis (“rope”).^[1][5] Corominas notes that Plautus already used it in the Romance sense “rope, cord”.^[6] The sense “seaweed” goes directly back to the name of a scientific Latin genus of algae (1797).^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician corda, Spanish cuerda, Catalan corda, French corde, Italian corda and Romanian coardă.^[7][1]

Wiktionary derives the Greek word, with an unclear formation, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰerH- (“bowel”), and compares Latin hernia and Old English ġearn.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[2][3] In the cantigas d'amigo it means a cord or string, and a cantiga d'escarnho warns that whoever wants money should not set his daughter to weaving, to cords or to sewing (nen a cordas nen a coser).^[8][9] The Crónica Troiana has a bed strung dũas cordas anchas de seda “with broad cords of silk”, ropes for hauling, and a ship's rigging.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Nascentes traces the order of the senses: the strings of the lyre were first made of gut, the name then passed to bowstrings, and finally to ropes of vegetable fibre such as flax or hemp.^[4] Bluteau (1712–1728) still notes that the strings of viols and harps were of sheep's gut and those of the harpsichord of wire.^[10]

Morais (1789) adds the steel spring of a clock, a chain of mountains, corda d'agua “a narrow band of rain” and cordas do coração “heartstrings”.^[11] Later senses include a row of people, the chord of a curve in geometry, the vocal cords, and in Brazil a string of crabs sold together and, informally, energy, stamina.^[2][12] In north-eastern Brazil corda is also a direction or course.^[13]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – corda in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437), its first occurrence in the CTA corpus.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses corda with Latin funis and restis.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists corda de esparto, corda da ancora and corda de viola.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais records the spring of a clock and cordas do coração.^[11]
• 1844 – first record of cordame “cordage”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rope or cord: fibres of sisal, hemp or a similar material twisted together; a clothes line; a skipping rope.^[2][17][1]
2. The string of a bow.^[2][18]
3. (music) A string of gut, silk, nylon or steel stretched on an instrument;^[2][17] (in the plural) the strings of an orchestra.^[2][17]
4. The spring or wire that drives a clock or a mechanism; hence dar corda “to wind up”: Esqueci-me de dar corda ao relógio.^[2][1]
5. A row or chain of people, hills or neighbouring plots.^[2][17]
6. (anatomy) A cord-like structure: cordas vocais.^[12]
7. (geometry) A chord, the segment joining two points of a curve.^[2][1]
8. (Brazil) A string of crabs sold together;^[2] (Rio Grande do Sul) a laço for catching cattle.^[2]
9. (figurative, informal) Energy, stamina: Ainda tem corda para mais um dia.^[2]

Word family

• cordame
• encordoar

Related words

• cordão
• cordel
• cordado
• Latin chorda
• Galician corda
• Spanish cuerda

Usage notes

Corda bamba “slack rope” is the circus tightrope and, figuratively, an unstable situation.^[2]

Houaiss also records a separate feminine noun corda, of obscure origin, a term of ethnology for a sorcerer's practice, witchcraft.^[2]

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 q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. corda
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. corda
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. corda
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. chorda
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 273
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1881
8. ^ a b 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. corda
9. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. corda
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. corda
11. ^ 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, 329
12. ^ 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. corda
13. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. corda
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. corda
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. corda
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. corda
17. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. corda
18. ^ 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. corda