escaldar

Forms

escaldar (first-person singular present escaldo, first-person singular preterite escaldei, past participle escaldado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin excaldō (“to wash in hot water, to put into hot water”).^[2][3][4][1] The DLP calls the Latin verb Vulgar Latin.^[5]

The same Latin verb is Galician escaldar, Spanish escaldar, Catalan escaldar, Occitan escaudar, French échauder, Italian scaldare and Romanian scălda “to bathe”.^[6][1]

The Latin verb is formed from ex- and caldus (“hot”), a shortened form of calidus.^[7][1] The adjective comes from caleō (“to be warm”), which de Vaan traces through *kalē- to Proto-Indo-European *ḱlh₁-eh₁- (“to be hot”), with Welsh clyd and Lithuanian šiltas “warm” as cognates.^[8] In Portuguese and Spanish the Latin adjective survives only as a noun, caldo “broth”.^[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 14th century.^[2][3] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 translates it with a Latin phrase meaning “to pour boiling water over”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau's examples are a martyr scalded with boiling oil, and fields parched by the sun.^[11] Morais adds washing dishes in hot water, and the figurative “to teach a hard lesson”, from which escaldado came to mean someone made wary by a bad experience.^[12] Vieira mentions scalding fish, meat and vegetables before they are cooked.^[13] Cunha dates the derivatives escaldado and escaldão to the 16th century.^[3]

Modern dictionaries add “to sauté”, “to inflame, to excite” and “to punish”.^[2][14] A shop that escalda a freguesia overcharges its customers.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record.^[2][3]
• 1556 – escaldado in a private letter.^[17]
• 16th century – first records of escaldado and escaldão.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso lists the verb.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives the sense “to parch”.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais gives the figurative “to teach a lesson”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To scald, to burn with a very hot liquid or steam;^[2][15][1] (pronominal) to scald oneself: Escaldei a língua com o chá.^[2][15][1]
2. To burn by contact with something very hot, such as hot metal.^[2][14]
3. To dip into boiling water, or pour boiling water over, in order to clean, peel or sterilize: Escalda os tomates para lhes tirar a pele.^[2][18]
4. To make very hot;^[2][19] (intransitive) to be scorching hot: A areia da praia escaldava.^[2][19]
5. To parch and make barren (the soil).^[2][5]
6. (cooking) To sauté, to cook in a refogado.^[2][14]
7. (figurative) To punish; to teach a hard lesson.^[2][5]
8. (figurative) To inflame, to excite.^[2][16]
9. (figurative, of a shop) To overcharge: escaldar a freguesia.^[15][16]

Word family

• escaldado
• escaldão
• escaldadura
• escalda-pés

Related words

• caldo
• calda
• caldeira
• cálido
• Galician escaldar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. escaldar
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. caldo
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. escaldar
5. ^ a b c 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. escaldar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2946
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. caldus
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1506
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escaldar
11. ^ 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. escaldar
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 734
13. ^ 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, 248
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. escaldar
15. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. escaldar
16. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3759
17. ^ 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. escaldar
18. ^ 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. escaldar
19. ^ a b 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. escaldar