crespo

Forms

crespo (feminine crespa, masculine plural crespos, feminine plural crespas)^[1] Houaiss records crispo in the 15th century.^[2] The vowel is closed /e/ in all forms (crespa, crespos, crespas).^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crispus (“curly, curled”).^[1] Cunha dates the word to the 13th century.^[2][4][1] The same Latin word is Galician crespo, Spanish crespo, Catalan cresp, Old French cresp and Italian crespo.^[5][1] crêpe, from the Old French adjective, came back into Portuguese as crepe.^[4][1]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *krispo- and, since the word goes with crīnis (“hair”) and crista (“crest”), takes the /sp/ as original, an Italo-Celtic stem in /kris-/, rather than a metathesis of /ps/; the Welsh crych (“curly, wrinkled”) is a cognate.^[6] Wiktionary adds a tentative link to Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found as a name: in Crespos, a place in charters of 1101 and 1105, and a man called Steuam Crespo in 1284.^[7] As an adjective it is in a cantiga d'escarnho of Roi Gomez de Briteiros, where a Moor is said to be cresp' e mal talhado “curly-haired and ill-shaped”.^[7][8] The Crónica Troiana describes someone with cabelos crespos et ruujos “curly red hair”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From curly hair the sense spread to any rough or wrinkled surface and to the sea when the wind ruffles it: Bluteau in 1712 has mar crespo “a sea that begins to make waves”, leyte crespo “whipped cream” and a crespo style, a hard and tangled one.^[9] Morais in 1813 adds rocks and coasts “bristling” with reefs, and a fortress crespa with men and guns.^[10] The figurative senses “threatening”, “rude” and “indecent” followed.^[2][3] In Portugal the word informally describes a bold or irritable person and an upturned nose.^[2] In north-eastern Brazil a crespo is a thin tapioca pancake, rolled or toasted.^[2] In Rio Grande do Sul it is said of a rude, insolent person and of a tense situation.^[11]

Timeline

• 1101 – in Crespos, a place name in a Latin charter.^[7]
• 13th century – first record of the adjective.^[4]
• 1284 – Steuam Crespo, a surname.^[7]
• 15th century – the spelling crispo.^[2]
• 1712 – Bluteau lists curly hair, mar crespo, leyte crespo and the crespo style.^[9]
• 1813 – first record of crepe, from French.^[4]
• 1813 – Morais defines the word as “of rough surface, neither flat nor smooth”.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a rough or wrinkled surface; rugoso: um tecido crespo.^{[2][3][12][1]}
2. Of hair, curly, tightly curled, frizzy; of leaves, wavy: alface crespa.^{[2][3][12][1]}
3. Of the sea or a river, choppy, rough.^[2][3][12]
4. Of ground, rocky, rugged.^[2][3]
5. Bristling, crowded with something that sticks out.^[2][12]
6. Angry, threatening; dangerous.^[2][3][12]
7. Coarse, rude.^[2][13]
8. (figurative) Of style, laboured and difficult.^[2][12]
9. (figurative) Indecent, risqué.^[2][3]
10. (Portugal, informal) Bold, cheeky; irritable.^[2]
11. (Portugal) Of a nose, turned up.^[2]

Noun

1. (north-eastern Brazil) A thin pancake of tapioca, served rolled or toasted.^[2]
2. (obsolete) A coarse, rough cloth used in the 18th century.^[2][12]
3. (in the plural) Wrinkles, folds.^[2][13]

Word family

• crespar
• encrespar
• encrespado
• desencrespar

Related words

• crepe
• crispar
• crina
• Latin crispus
• Galician crespo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. crespo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. crespo
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. crespo
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2329
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 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. crespo
8. ^ 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. crespo
9. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. crespo
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 493
11. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. crespo
12. ^ a b c d e f g 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. crespo
13. ^ 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. crespo