erva

Forms

erva f (plural ervas)^[1] The 13th century writes erva and herua.^[2] Bluteau heads the word erva, ou herva, Feijó prefers herva, and Vieira's dictionary refers erva to herva.^[3][4][5] The spelling without ⟨h⟩ became the rule in the 20th century;^[6] Gonçalves Viana kept the ⟨h⟩ only in the learned derivatives.^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin herba (“grass, herb, small plant”), written Old Galician-Portuguese erva and Old Galician-Portuguese herua in the oldest texts.^[7][2][1]

The same Latin word is Galician herba, Spanish hierba, Catalan herba, French herbe, Italian erba and Romanian iarbă.^[8][1]

Wiktionary traces the Latin word to Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow, become green”).^[1] De Vaan considers the older reconstruction *gher-dh- impossible and finds no viable alternative.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria tell of a herb de tal prez “of such worth” given to heal lepers, and contrast herbs with spells: nen valian ervas nen escantações “neither herbs nor charms were of any use”.^[10] Johan Garcia de Guilhade's cantiga has creceu a erua “the grass grew”.^[10] The first senses are thus a healing or magic plant and grass in general.^[10]

Semantic evolution

A medieval sense was “poison”: Viterbo explains that the name was given above all to hemlock, with which arrows were poisoned, so that tirar com erva meant to shoot with a poisoned weapon, and Portuguese had hervar “to poison”.^[11][8] Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 lists the diminutive ervinha and the verb ervecer “to turn to grass”.^[12] In Brazil erva is short for the maté plant, and in the south it also means any herb drunk as a cooling or medicinal infusion.^[7][13] Figueiredo already gives a Brazilian sense, which he glosses as congonha.^[14] Brazilian slang adds “money” and “marijuana”.^[7][15] The word is the first part of the names of very many plants.^[14][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – erva in the Cantigas de Santa Maria; the adjective ervoso in the same century.^[10][2]
• 14th century – herueyro, the old form of erveiro.^[2]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists erva, ervinha and ervecer.^[12]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau heads the word erva, ou herva.^[3]
• 1798–1799 – Viterbo explains the old sense “poison”.^[11]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records a Brazilian sense, glossed congonha.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) A plant with a soft, non-woody stem, usually small, annual or perennial; a herb.^[7][15][1]
2. grass; the plants of fields and meadows, cut as fodder for animals.^[16][17][1]
3. A plant used for seasoning or as a medicine: ervas aromáticas, ervas medicinais.^[16][17]
4. (Brazil) Any poisonous plant growing in pastures.^[7][15]
5. (Brazil) Vegetables; greens.^[7][15]
6. (Brazil) maté (Ilex paraguariensis), short for erva-mate.^[7][13][1]
7. (Portugal, in the plural) A side dish of boiled, finely chopped greens fried in olive oil and garlic.^[17]
8. (Brazil, slang) money.^[7][15]
9. (slang) marijuana.^[7][17][1]

Word family

• ervaçal
• ervado
• ervagem
• erval
• ervanário
• erveiro
• ervoso
• erva-mate

Related words

• herbáceo
• herbanário
• herbário
• herbívoro
• Latin herba
• Spanish hierba

Usage notes

Erva daninha is a weed, a plant that grows among crops and harms them, and figuratively a harmful person or influence.^[7][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. erva
3. ^ 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. erva
4. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. erva
5. ^ 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, 239
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. erva
7. ^ 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. erva
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4109
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d 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. erva
11. ^ a b 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. 2, 38
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. erva
13. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. erva
14. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 528
15. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. erva
16. ^ a b 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. erva
17. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3732