couraça

Forms

couraça f (plural couraças)^[1] The 15th century wrote couraça, coiraça, coyraça and corauça.^[2][3][4] Coiraça is still accepted as a variant.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin coriācea (understood with vestis (“garment”)), the feminine of coriāceus (“of leather”), from Latin corium (“skin, hide”).^[2][1][7][8] The first cuirasses were of leather, and only later of metal.^[8] Vieira and Aurélio analyse it instead as couro with the suffix -aça.^[9][10] Medieval Latin has the word in many spellings, such as curacea and coiracea.^[11]

The same Late Latin word is Spanish coraza (1330), Galician coiraza, Old Occitan coirassa and Italian corazza.^[12][13][14] The DHLF takes French cuirasse (1266) probably from Old Occitan, and the French word is the source of English cuirass.^[14][1]

De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Italic *korjom, probably a derivative of a PIE noun meaning “what is torn off, peeled off”, hence “bark, skin”;^[15][1] Wiktionary gives the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”).^[15][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date couraça and coiraça to the 15th century.^[2][3][4] A Galician notarial book of Rianxo of 1457 lists hũas coyraças “a cuirass” beside three chests and three crossbows: the word means body armour.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Vieira quotes a passage in which Afonso de Albuquerque sends a king courasas of crimson velvet among other armour.^[9] Folqman (1755) translates it as lorica.^[16] From armour the word passed to anything that protects, to the bony plates of some animals, and to the steel armour of warships;^[2][4] couraçado “ironclad” is recorded in 1873.^[2][4] In the old fortifications it named a walled passage.^[7][6] The phrase o defeito da couraça, the gap between the cuirass and the other pieces, came to mean a person's weak point.^[17]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records, as couraça, coiraça and corauça.^[2][3]
• 1457 – coyraças in a Galician notarial book of Rianxo.^[13]
• 1755 – Folqman's dictionary translates couraça as lorica.^[16]
• 1836 – encouraçado is recorded.^[4]
• 1873 – couraçado, an armoured warship.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cuirass, body armour of metal or leather protecting the chest and back.^[2][10][1]
2. (figurative) Anything that protects a person against adversity, ill luck or slander; in psychology a defence mechanism.^[2][10]
3. (zoology) The bony plates or scales that cover the body of some animals.^[2][18]
4. (nautical, military) The thick steel armour of a warship or a tank; blindagem.^[2][7]
5. (historical) In old fortifications, a passage or slope walled on both sides.^[7][6]

Word family

• couraçado
• encouraçado
• encouraçar

Related words

• couro
• coura
• Latin corium
• Spanish coraza
• French cuirasse

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. couraça
3. ^ a b c Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. coiraça
4. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. couro
5. ^ 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. couraça
6. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. couraça
7. ^ a b c d 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. couraça
8. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. couraça
9. ^ 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, 597
10. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. couraça
11. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. coriacea
12. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuero
13. ^ a b c 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. coyraça
14. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. cuirasse
15. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. corium
16. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. couraça
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. couraça
18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2533