enxofre

Forms

enxofre m (plural enxofres)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote suffre and eixuffre in the 13th century, xuffre and eyxufre in the 14th;^[2][3] Cunha dates the modern enxofre to the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sulfur (“sulphur, brimstone”), written Old Galician-Portuguese suffre in the oldest texts, beside Old Galician-Portuguese eixuffre and Old Galician-Portuguese xuffre.^[2][3][4][1] The modern initial en- grew out of the old forms with ei- and e-.^[2][4]

Houaiss explains the a- of the old Galician and Portuguese axufre and of Old Spanish açufre as a wrong division of a phrase meaning “sulphur stone”, helped by the Arabic article, and he ascribes the vocalised Latin ⟨l⟩ and the change of /s/ to the sound written ⟨x⟩ to Moorish influence.^[2] Nascentes also sees Mozarabic influence in the ⟨x⟩, but in 1966 he rejects the Arabic article, since the Arabic name of sulphur is unrelated; he takes the n of en- as the language's dislike of a lone initial e-.^[4] In 1955 he had still allowed the Arabic article, and had derived the modern form from a nasalised variant of it, perhaps already hidden in an old exufre written without its tilde.^[5] Corominas puts the a- of Spanish azufre down to a misreading of piedra sufre.^[4][6]

The same Latin word is Galician xofre, Catalan sofre, French soufre and Italian zolfo.^[2][6][1] The ⟨u⟩ of the Spanish word is found in no other Romance language, not even in the Portuguese and Catalan forms, while its ⟨z⟩ reappears in Italian.^[6]

Wiktionary derives the Latin word from Proto-Indo-European *swelplos, from the root *swel- (“to burn, smoulder”).^[1] De Vaan considers sulpur the best Latin spelling and suggests, with doubts about the sound changes, a *solp-r (“fat”) related to ὅλπη (ólpē, “oil flask”) and salba (“ointment”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology gives as the first record a line of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, u será o ayre de fog' e de suffr' aceso “where the air will be of fire and of burning sulphur”, and a Galician Estoria with fire and xufre ençendido raining on the cities of the plain.^[8] The word already meant the yellow mineral, here as the burning brimstone of divine punishment.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 and Barbosa's of 1611 render enxofre by Latin sulphur, and Barbosa adds the mecha de enxofre, a sulphur match.^[9][10] Morais in 1789 describes a yellow, easily inflamed mineral, native or artificial, and records the chemists' use of the word for the most inflammable element of bodies.^[11][12] Vieira in 1871 describes it as a simple body and notes its long use in medicine against skin diseases.^[13] Today it is the chemical element of atomic number 16.^[2][14]

Old Portuguese also named sulphur acrebite or alcrevite, synonyms Aurélio marks as obsolete.^[14]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, spelt suffre and eixuffre.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the spellings xuffre and eyxufre.^[2][3]
• 16th century – first record of the spelling enxofre.^[3]
• 1561 – enxofre in a private letter.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary lists Enxofre.^[9]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists mecha de enxofre.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais records the chemists' sense of an inflammable element of bodies.^[11]
• 1871 – Vieira describes its uses in medicine.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. sulphur, the non-metallic chemical element of atomic number 16 (symbol S), a yellow, brittle solid with a strong smell when it burns, used for sulphuric acid, gunpowder, matches and the vulcanização of rubber.^{[2][14][16][1]}
2. An atom of sulphur.^[1]
3. flor de enxofre: sublimed, powdered sulphur, much used to dust vines.^[17][18]

Word family

• enxofrar
• enxofradeira

Related words

• súlfur
• Latin sulfur
• Galician xofre
• Spanish azufre

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. enxofre
3. ^ 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. enxofre
4. ^ a b c d Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. enxofre
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. enxofre
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 438
7. ^ 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. sulpur
8. ^ a b 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. suffre
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. enxofre
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. enxofre
11. ^ a b 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, 20
12. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 724
13. ^ 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. 3, 206
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. enxofre
15. ^ 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. enxofre
16. ^ 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. enxofre
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. enxofre
18. ^ 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. enxofre