cortina

Forms

cortina f (plural cortinas)^[1] Medieval texts write cortynna (13th century), cortina (14th century) and cortinha or cortjnha (1344, 1364).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cortīna (“curtain”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cortynna, Old Galician-Portuguese cortina and Old Galician-Portuguese cortinha in the medieval texts.^[2][1][3] The Late Latin word was formed on Latin cōrs (“enclosure, courtyard”), a contracted form of cohors.^[2][4] Corominas explains it as a calque of Ancient Greek αὐλαία (aulaía, “curtain”), from αὐλή (aulḗ, “courtyard”).^[5][1] St Ambrose and St Isidore already use it, and it is unrelated to the classical homonym meaning “cauldron”.^[5][1] De Vaan derives the Latin noun for the enclosure from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰr̥-ti- (“enclosure”), perhaps from a root meaning “to take, grab”.^[6]

The sources differ on the route into Portuguese.^[1][5][7] Wiktionary's Old Galician-Portuguese entry calls the form with ⟨nh⟩ the regular native outcome and the form with ⟨n⟩ an influence of Old Spanish or of the Latin, which also kept it apart from the native word for an enclosed plot of land.^[1] Nascentes takes the modern word from Spanish cortina, the Latin having given the form with ⟨nh⟩, recorded in the 14th century.^[7] Corominas considers the Portuguese form certainly learned.^[5]

The same Late Latin word is Galician cortina, Catalan cortina, Italian cortina and Old French cortine.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Galician will of 1326 leaves mia cama assy como iaz con sous panos et con suas cortinas “my bed as it stands, with its cloths and its curtains”, and one of 1348 has hua cortina noua “a new curtain”.^[3] An inventory of 1364 lists hũa cortjnha que leuam sobre o corpore christi “a curtain that they carry over the Corpus Christi” and curtains for an altar.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The medieval curtains are those of beds and altars, and the Crónica Geral of 1344 mentions cortinhas de seda “silk curtains”.^[3] Folqman (1755) gives correr a cortina “to draw the curtain” to hide something.^[9] Vieira (1871–1874) describes a cloth that runs on rings along a rod, covering a bed, a cupboard or a window.^[10]

Fortification gave the sense “wall between two bastions”, and by extension a low wall that guards a road by a precipice; both are in Figueiredo (1899).^[11] Silva Bastos (1912) adds “row, line”.^[12] The theatre curtain, the wipe of film and television and the political Cortina de Ferro “Iron Curtain” are modern senses.^[2][13][14] The word passed into Gujarati and Konkani.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, spelt cortynna.^[2]
• 1326 – suas cortinas in a Galician will.^[3]
• 1344 – cortinhas de seda in the Crónica Geral.^[3]
• 1364 – cortjnha in an inventory.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – cortina in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[15]
• 1755 – Folqman records correr a cortina.^[9]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the wall between two bastions.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A curtain: a piece of cloth or other material hung to cover, hide or decorate something, especially a window.^[2][16][1]
2. (theatre) The curtain that separates the stage from the audience.^[13][16]
3. (figurative) Anything that hides or blocks the view: cortina de fumo (Portugal), cortina de fumaça (Brazil) smokescreen.^[13][17]
4. (fortification) The stretch of wall between two bastions.^[16][18]
5. A low wall that guards a road along a precipice.^[16][18]
6. A row, a line: uma cortina de pinheiros.^[16][13]
7. (film, television) A wipe, a visual effect that closes and opens the picture between two shots.^[2][19]

Word family

• cortinado

Usage notes

Correr a cortina sobre something is to stop talking or thinking about it, and estar por trás da cortina to direct an affair without appearing in it.^[19][13]

Aurélio and Michaelis also record a separate noun cortina “cortin”, an extract of the adrenal cortex, formed from córtex and -ina.^[16][17]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cortina
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. cortina
4. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cortina
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 216
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. cortina
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
9. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cortina
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, 570
11. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 353
12. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. cortina
13. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2509
14. ^ 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. cortina
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cortina
16. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cortina
17. ^ 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. cortina
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cortina
19. ^ a b 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. cortina