crista

Forms

crista f (plural cristas)^[1] Houaiss records the 14th-century spellings christa and cresta.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crista (“crest, comb”), written Old Galician-Portuguese crista and Old Galician-Portuguese cresta in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1]

The same Latin word is Galician crista, Spanish cresta, Catalan cresta, French crête, Italian cresta and Romanian creastă.^[1][4] Nascentes, after the REW, explains the vowel /i/ of the Portuguese and Galician words, where most other Romance languages have /e/, as taken from the unstressed syllables of derivatives.^[4] Corominas compares isca beside Spanish yesca and silva beside selva.^[5]

De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Italic *kristā-, from the same stem *kris- (“crest, plume, hair”) as crīnis (“hair”) and crispus (“curly”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[2][3] The Crónica Troiana describes a frightful dragon por hũa crista que avia ẽna cabeça “for a crest it had on its head”.^[7] A cantiga mentions the hoopoe, a crista que ten “the crest it has”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1562) glosses the word as penacho “plume, tuft”.^[9] Bluteau (1712) defines it as the fleshy comb of the cock and hen and records the idioms abater as cristas “to humble someone's pride”, alevantar as cristas “to grow proud” and jogar as cristas “to fight”, taken from cockfights, and the plant name crista de gallo.^[10] Morais (1813) adds the plume or horsehair crest of a helmet.^[11] Vieira (1873) extends it by analogy to the crest of some snakes and the top of a hill or rock.^[12]

Houaiss lists the modern technical senses: the ridge of a bone in anatomy, the ridge of the sea floor and the crest of a wave in oceanography, the top of a wall or roof in building.^[2] Brazilian informal usage has crista for a person's hair and the phrases baixar a crista “to be humbled” and de crista levantada “arrogant”;^[2] na crista da onda means “at the height of success”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1200s – first records, according to Houaiss and Cunha.^[2][3]
• 1300s – the spellings christa and cresta.^[2]
• 1562 – Cardoso lists Crista as o penacho.^[9]
• 1712 – Bluteau records abater as cristas and jogar as cristas.^[10]
• 1836 – first record of the derivative cristado, in Constâncio's dictionary.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fleshy red comb on the head of the cock and other birds: O galo eriçou a crista.^[2][13][1]
2. (anatomy) A narrow, elongated ridge of a bone: crista ilíaca.^[2][14]
3. A tuft of feathers on a bird's head; penacho, poupa.^[2][13]
4. A protuberance on the head or back of some fishes, reptiles and amphibians.^[2][15]
5. An ornament of metal or plumes on top of a helmet (elmo).^[2][16]
6. (horsemanship) The high, elegant carriage of a horse's neck.^[2][14]
7. The top of a hill or mountain; the crest of a ridge.^[2][15][1]
8. (oceanography) The top of a wave; also a narrow ridge of the sea floor.^[2]
9. (building) The top edge of a wall or roof;^[2][14] (military architecture) the parapet of a fortification.^[2][14]
10. (Brazil, informal) A person's hair; also a mohawk haircut.^[2][1]
11. (botany) The ligule of a palm leaf.^[2][13]

Word family

• cristado

Related words

• Latin crista
• Spanish cresta

Usage notes

Common idioms are levantar a crista “to show arrogance”, baixar a crista “to be humbled”, de crista caída or arriada “crestfallen”, and in Portugal jogar as cristas “to quarrel, fight”.^[2][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. crista
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. crista
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 1, 143
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 241
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. ^ 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. crista
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. crista
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1562), Dictionarium juventuti studiosae admodum frugiferum, Coimbra: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. crista
10. ^ 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. crista
11. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 496
12. ^ 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, 641
13. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. crista
14. ^ a b c d 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. crista
15. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2583
16. ^ 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. crista