era

Forms

era f (plural eras)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin aera (“number, figure; era”).^[2][3][4][1] The Late Latin word was at first the neuter plural of aes (“bronze; money”), used for the counters and figures of a reckoning, and later taken as a feminine singular of the first declension.^[5][6][1] Lewis and Short give its mathematical sense, “a given number from which a reckoning is made”,^[7] and Niermeyer's Medieval Latin meanings run from “number” to “the year counted from a fixed point” and “the Spanish era”.^[8]

The same word is Galician era, Spanish era, Catalan era, Italian era and French ère.^[9][10][1] Corominas dates the Spanish to 1100,^[6] while French borrowed it only in 1539.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears in the dating formulas of medieval documents, which counted the years in the Spanish era: a document of 1257 is dated In era de mil e ccº e lxxxxv anos “in the era of one thousand two hundred and ninety-five years”.^[12] Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The medieval sense is the Spanish era, the count of the years that began 38 years before the birth of Christ and is found in the Portuguese documents.^[13] Aulete and Morais record that it was used in Portugal until King João I ordered the years to be counted from the birth of Christ.^[14][15] The Crónica Troiana already uses era for a long stretch of time.^[12] Bluteau (1712–1728) calls it an old chronological term used in Spain, a fixed point from which the years are counted.^[16] Morais has the phrase já se lhe passou a era “his time has gone by”, of someone old.^[15]

The modern senses are a long period marked by some new development (a era espacial), a historical epoch, and in geology a unit of time between the eon and the period.^[2][4] In Brazil era also means a year of an animal's age, and the mark cut in the ear of cattle to show it.^[14][17]

Timeline

• 1257 – In era de mil e ccº e lxxxxv anos in a dated document.^[12]
• c. 1350 – first of the CTA's texts with the word, the Trasladação de S. Nicolau (a 14th-century witness).^[18]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau calls it an old chronological term of Spain.^[16]
• 1755 – Folqman gives na era de nosso Senhor Jesus Christo.^[19]
• 1789 – Morais records the use of the Spanish era until King João I.^[15]
• 1798–1799 – Viterbo's Elucidário explains the Spanish era of the documents.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fixed point in time from which the years are counted, and the calendar counted from it: a era cristã.^[2][4][1]
2. A long period that begins with a notable event or brings a new order of things: a era da internet.^[2][4]
3. A historical epoch with its own character; any period of time.^[2][17]
4. The number that marks a year, or a decade within a century.^[2][14]
5. (geology) A unit of geological time, below the éon and above the período.^[2][1]
6. (Brazil) A year of age, of an animal; the mark cut in the ear of cattle to show it.^[14][17]

Related words

• época
• Late Latin aera
• Spanish era

Usage notes

Viterbo rejects the old explanations of the word as the initials AERA, for a year of the reign of Augustus, or as the tribute paid to him, calling them arbitrary and childish.^[13]

The older dictionaries also spell hera “ivy” as era, a different word: Barbosa (1611) heads it Era, erva.^[20][19] Era is also the imperfect of ser (“was”), which Aulete lists as a homonym.^[14]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. era
3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. era
4. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. era
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. era
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 652
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. aera
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. aera
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 241
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 181
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ère
12. ^ a b c 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. era
13. ^ a b c Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 406
14. ^ a b c d e 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. era
15. ^ a b c 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, 524
16. ^ 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. era
17. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. era
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. era
19. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. era
20. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. era