couro

Forms

couro m (plural couros)^[1] The older form coiro (13th century, also spelt coyro) is still a variant of the word.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary also lists the dialect forms cuiro, cuoiro, cueiro and coro.^[1] Feijó's spelling guide of 1734 enters both Couro and Coiro.^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin corium (“skin, hide”), written Old Galician-Portuguese coiro in the oldest texts.^[7][2][1][8] Wiktionary explains the old form by metathesis of the Latin ending, and the present form as a later alteration of the old one.^[1] Cunha records Old Galician-Portuguese coyro beside it in the 13th century, and the present form from the 14th.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician coiro, Spanish cuero, Catalan cuir, French cuir and Italian cuoio.^[1][9] García de Diego notes that the old form was also that of medieval Galician and survives in the speech of Salamanca.^[10]

The Latin noun goes back to *korjom.^[11][1] De Vaan derives it from a Proto-Indo-European form meaning “torn off, peeled off”, hence “bark, skin”, and links it with cortex (“bark”) and scortum (“hide”);^[11][1] Wiktionary traces it to the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, separate”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's earliest date for coiro is before 1096, from Machado's records.^[3] In the 13th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria the word is an animal's hide: a man has a dead mule flayed, “expecting to get five soldos and a half for the hide” (cuidando aver do coiro cinco soldoos e mealla); elsewhere it is the skin of a person's face and throat.^[12] A satirical cantiga uses it for tanned leather goods that were badly spoiled.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

In all the Romance languages the word tended to narrow to “tanned hide”; the older sense “skin in general” lasted better in Spanish and Portuguese than elsewhere.^[14] Portuguese still uses it of human skin, mostly in jest or contempt, and couro cabeludo is the scalp.^[7][5] Medieval Galician notaries wrote on parchment “of leather”.^[12] Bluteau's dictionary (1712–1728) treats couro at length as the skin that covers the whole body.^[15]

Figurative and popular senses followed: an ugly old woman, an old prostitute, a whip, and in Brazil the football.^[7][4][16] In north-eastern Brazil os couros are the leather outfit of the cattle herder, with jerkin, breastplate and leggings.^[7][17] In Guinea-Bissau Portuguese the word means a post or position.^[4]

Timeline

• before 1096 – Houaiss's first date for coiro, from Machado.^[3]
• 13th century – coiro and coyro; the Cantigas de Santa Maria use coiro for a mule's hide.^[2][12]
• 14th century – first record of the form couro.^[7][2]
• c. 1430 – coiro in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[18]
• 1544 – couros in a private letter.^[19]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary renders Couro by Latin corium.^[20]
• 16th century – first record of the derivative courama.^[2]
• 1734 – Feijó lists Couro and Coiro.^[6]
• 1789 – Morais defines couro as the skin of animals such as the horse, ox and cow.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. The thick, tough hide of certain animals: o couro de um boi.^[7][22][23]
2. leather, the hide after tanning, used for clothes, shoes and furniture; also the leather industry.^[7][4][1]
3. (humorous or pejorative) Human skin, especially rough or aged skin; the skin of the head, hence couro cabeludo “scalp”.^[7][22][5]
4. (by metonymy) A whip or leather strap.^[7][4]
5. (informal, pejorative) An ugly or decrepit woman; an old prostitute.^[7][22][5]
6. (Brazil, football) The ball.^[7][4]
7. (north-eastern Brazil, in the plural) The leather clothing of a vaqueiro.^[7][17]
8. (Guinea-Bissau) A post or position held by someone.^[4]

Word family

• courama
• coureiro

Related words

• couraça
• couraçado
• couraceiro
• Latin corium
• Galician coiro
• Spanish cuero

Usage notes

Houaiss labels em couro “stark naked” as regional Portuguese, and the DLP records the same phrase as popular.^[7][22] In Ceará comer o couro de alguém means to give someone a beating.^[7]

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 Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. couro
3. ^ a b c Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. coiro
4. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. couro
5. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. couro
6. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. couro
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. couro
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. couro
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 140
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. corium
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d 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. coiro
13. ^ 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. coiro
14. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 274
15. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. couro
16. ^ 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. couro
17. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. couro
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. coiro
19. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. couro
20. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. couro
21. ^ 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, 344
22. ^ 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. couro
23. ^ 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. couro