eira

eira¹ threshing floor

Etymology tree of eira¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin ārea

Aromanian aryi

Catalan era

French aire

Italian aia

Portuguese eira

Romanian arie

Spanish era

English area

French are

Italian area

From the same root · eira¹

Latin āreola ← ārea

French hectare ← are

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈe(j).ɾɐ/, [ˈe(ɪ̯).ɾɐ]^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈɐj.ɾɐ/^[1]
• Northern, Portugal: /ˈej.ɾɐ/^[1]
• Central, Portugal: /ˈej.ɾɐ/^[1]

Forms

eira f (plural eiras)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the threshing floor is inherited from Latin ārea (“open space; threshing floor”), written Old Galician-Portuguese eira in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes derives it through a form *aira, with the i moved into the first syllable.^[4] The learned área is a doublet, borrowed from the same Latin word.^[2][1]

The same Latin word is Galician eira, Spanish era, Catalan era, Occitan ièra, French aire, Italian aia and Romanian arie.^[5][1] Old Leonese charters also have this form, from 938 on.^[6]

The origin of the Latin word is disputed: Wiktionary gives a derivation from the root *h₂eHs- (“to burn”), the root of the Latin verb for “to be dry”, and one from a word for a threshing tool, with a cognate in Hittite.^[1] The OLD calls it doubtful, perhaps from the verb for being dry.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's earliest date, 1018, is from Machado, and the 13th-century form eyra is the first Romance record he lists.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria tell of a man seen threshing seu millo “his millet” na eira, and a cantiga d'escarnho of Afonso Lopez de Baian has Belpelho found estando en ũa eira “standing on a threshing floor”.^[8][9] Cunha's first date is only the 16th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712) defines the word as the ground on which wheat is threshed, and Morais (1813) as the yard where grain is dried, threshed and cleaned, with o tempo da eira for the month of August.^[10][11] The original Caldas Aulete adds the yard of the sugar mills where the cane is kept, the yard of some cloth mills and the ground where salt is piled beside the salt pans.^[12] In the salt works of Setúbal, Aveiro and Cabo Frio the eiras are the heaps or raised platforms of salt.^[13] A dialect of Portugal uses the word for the halo round the moon, a sign of rain.^[13] Cunha dates eirado to 1614.^[3]

Timeline

• 1018 – Houaiss's earliest date, from Machado.^[2]
• 13th century – the spelling eyra;^[2][8] eira in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][8]
• 14th century – the spelling heyra.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders it by Latin area.^[14]
• 1614 – first record of eirado.^[3]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines it as the ground where wheat is threshed.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A threshing floor: a patch of beaten earth, stone slabs or cement where grain and pulses are dried, threshed and cleaned.^{[2][15][16][1]}
2. The time of threshing.^[17]
3. The ground beside the salt pans where the salt is piled.^[2][18][19]
4. The yard of some cloth mills.^[2][16]
5. (Brazil) A store for sugar cane beside a sugar mill.^[2][15][16]

Word family

• eirado

eira² tayra

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈe(j).ɾɐ/, [ˈe(ɪ̯).ɾɐ]^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈɐj.ɾɐ/^[1]
• Northern, Portugal: /ˈej.ɾɐ/^[1]
• Central, Portugal: /ˈej.ɾɐ/^[1]

Forms

eira f (plural eiras)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the tayra is borrowed from Guarani eira.^[1] Nascentes cites Santamaría for a Guarani origin, with the sense “wild cat”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Figueiredo's dictionary (1899) enters it as a masculine noun, “cat of Paraguay”.^[20]

Timeline

• 1899 – Figueiredo's dictionary enters eira, “cat of Paraguay”.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Brazil, zoology) The tayra (Eira barbara), which the dictionaries describe as a kind of wild cat of Paraguay.^{[1][20][17][18]}