coroa

Forms

coroa f (plural coroas)^[1] The oldest texts write corõa;^[2][3] coroa alternates with it from the cancioneiros on, and the learned corona appears in the 15th century.^[2][3] The spelling corôa was used before the spelling reforms.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin corōna (“wreath, garland, crown”), written Old Galician-Portuguese corõa in the oldest texts.^[2][4][3][1] The Latin -n- between vowels was lost, leaving the nasal vowel of the old form, which later lost its nasality.^[2][3] The same Latin word was later borrowed as the learned doublet corona.^[2][1]

The same Latin word is Galician coroa, Spanish corona, Catalan corona, French couronne, Italian corona and Romanian cunună.^[5][1]

The Latin word is a borrowing from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē, “crow; anything curved or hooked; a kind of crown”), an old loan that Latin fully adapted.^[6][1][7] Beekes lists the Greek word for “crow” and, as metaphors, for curved objects such as the tip of a bow or a door handle, and once for a kind of crown.^[8] Wiktionary derives the Greek word from Proto-Indo-European *ḱorh₂- (“crow”), an imitative word, and thinks the curved senses probably have the same origin; its Latin entry instead points to *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria have un preste de corõa, a tonsured priest, and call the Virgin corõa dos santos “crown of the saints”;^[9] Lorenzo dates aa coroa do Regno “to the Crown of the Kingdom” to 1305.^[9] The Crónica Troiana places hũa corõa d'ouro on a king's head.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named the circlet worn on the head, the clerical tonsure and, by the 14th century, the kingdom itself: a cantiga d'escarnho says filhar corõa for being crowned king, and the Crónica Geral speaks of a corõa do rreyno.^[9] The Miragres de Santiago use it figuratively for a reward, in coroa de marteyro “crown of martyrdom”.^[3] Houaiss dates to the 15th century the senses “royal power” and “the monarch”.^[2]

The word also named coins stamped with a crown: King Duarte had gold coroas struck, and the Cortes of Évora of 1481 valued one at 120 réis.^[10] Nascentes explains the coroa of a coin, its reverse in cara ou coroa “heads or tails”, by the crown engraved on it.^[11] The Scandinavian and Czech currencies are called coroa in Portuguese, as is the dental crown.^[2][1] Brazilian informal speech uses coroa for a middle-aged or older person, and in Rio Grande do Sul for one's father or mother.^[2][12][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – corõa in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, for the tonsure and the crown.^[9][2]
• 1305 – aa coroa do Regno, the Crown of the kingdom.^[9]
• 14th century – first record of coroamento.^[4]
• 15th century – the senses “royal power” and “the monarch”; first records of coroação and coroador.^[2][4]
• c. 1430 – first record in the CTA corpus, in the Horto do Esposo.^[13]
• 1481 – the Cortes of Évora value the gold coroa at 120 réis.^[10]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it as Latin corona and diadema.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais records the senses “kingdom”, the top of a coat of arms and the tonsure.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A crown, a circular ornament worn on the head as a sign of sovereignty, nobility or victory; a wreath (grinalda): uma coroa de louros.^[2][16][1]
2. (often capitalised) Royal power; the monarchy (monarquia); the monarch as head of state: os inimigos da Coroa.^[2][16][1]
3. (religion) The tonsure (tonsura) of the clergy.^[2][16]
4. (figurative) A reward, a glory; the finishing touch.^[2][16]
5. Anything shaped like a crown; a halo round the Sun or the Moon; the top of a hill.^[2]
6. A bald patch on the crown of the head.^[2]
7. (dentistry) The crown of a tooth, natural or artificial.^[2][1]
8. The tuft of leaves on top of a pineapple.^[2]
9. (geometry) The annulus between two concentric circles.^[2]
10. The krone, krona or koruna of the Scandinavian countries and the Czech Republic; old Portuguese and English coins.^[2][1]
11. The reverse of a coin, tails: cara ou coroa.^[2][1]
12. Half a rosary, seven Our Fathers and seven decades of Hail Marys.^[2]
13. (Brazil, informal) A middle-aged or older person.^[2][12][1]
14. (Rio Grande do Sul, informal) One's father or mother.^[1]

Word family

• coroar
• coroação
• coroador
• coroamento
• coroinha
• coroado

Related words

• corola
• corolário
• corona
• coronal
• coronário
• Latin corōna
• Galician coroa

Usage notes

Coroa de espinhos, the crown of thorns, is also said of a lasting torment.^[2] In the sense “older person” the word is masculine or feminine according to the person meant: um coroa, uma coroa.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 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 r s t u v w x y Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. coroa
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. coroa
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. coroa
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2245
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. corōna
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. couronne
8. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e f 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. corõa
10. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 310
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. coroa
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. coroa
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. coroa
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. coroa
15. ^ 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, 331
16. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. coroa