espelho

Forms

espelho m (plural espelhos)^[1] Medieval texts write espello and espelho, and Houaiss records spelho in the 15th century.^[2][3] Wiktionary records the older spelling espêlho, with the circumflex.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin speclum, the syncopated form of speculum (“mirror”), written Old Galician-Portuguese espello and Old Galician-Portuguese espelho in the oldest texts.^[1][2][3][4] The learned espéculo is a doublet.^[1][2]

The same Latin word is Galician espello, Spanish espejo, Catalan espill and Italian specchio.^[1][5] Corominas suggests that some Romance forms, among them Mirandese speilho and the Sardinian ones, go back to a Vulgar Latin variant with /i/ for /e/, made under the influence of cōnspiciō (“to catch sight of”).^[5]

The Latin noun is formed from speciō (“to see, look”) with the instrumental suffix -ulum.^[6] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to look”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century, are figurative: the Virgin is espello / das Virgẽes “the mirror of virgins” and aquela que espello / é dos santos “she who is the mirror of the saints”.^[3] In the secular cantigas a lover is meu lum' e meu espelho “my light and my mirror”, and a cantiga of Afonso X tells someone to look at himself in the mirror (vos catedes no espelho).^[8][9] The Crónica Troiana has a maiden holding hun espello d'ouro “a golden mirror” and calls Helen espello et flor of other women.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “model, example” has been in use since the cantigas, and Morais (1789) still gives it, quoting “there is no better mirror than a skull” to show us what we are.^[3][10] Morais also records technical senses from the shape or shine of the mirror: the whorl of hair on a horse's chest, a glazed window in the front of a church and the plate of a lock.^[10] Modern Portuguese adds the riser of a stair, the cover plate of a switch or socket and the page layout plan of printing and journalism.^[2][11]

The word passed into Macanese as ispêlo and into Papiamentu as spil.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use espello of the Virgin.^[3][2]
• 14th century – the spelling espelho.^[2]
• c. 1400 – a Flos Sanctorum fragment from Santiago de Compostela uses the word.^[12]
• 15th century – the spelling spelho.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin speculum.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records the senses of a horse's chest, a church window and a lock.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (optics) A highly polished surface that reflects light.^[2][14]
2. A mirror, a looking glass, usually framed, hung on a wall or held in the hand: olhou-se ao espelho antes de sair.^[2][14][1]
3. Anything that reflects like a mirror, such as the calm surface of water.^[2][11][1]
4. (figurative) A faithful image or reflection of something: as notas são o espelho do esforço.^[2][14]
5. (figurative) A model to follow; an example.^[2][14][1]
6. (construction) The riser, the vertical face of a stair.^[2][14][1]
7. (construction) A cover plate around a switch or socket, or the outer plate of a lock; an escutcheon.^[2][11][1]
8. (architecture) A glazed opening in the front of a church.^[2][11]
9. (printing, journalism) A layout plan of the pages of a publication or the items of a news broadcast.^[2][11]
10. A whorl of hair on a horse's chest.^[2][15]
11. (music) The sound hole of certain string instruments.^[2][15]

Word family

• espelhar
• espelhinho
• espelharia
• espelheiro
• espelho retrovisor

Related words

• especular
• espéculo
• Galician espello
• Spanish espejo

Usage notes

The stressed vowel is /e/ in Brazil and usually /ɐ/ or /ɐj/ in Portugal;^[1][15][16] Priberam gives both pronunciations.^[1][15][16]

Houaiss also records espelho as a feminine noun, the name of a moth, short for mariposa-espelho.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. espelho
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. espello
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. espelho
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 740
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. speculum
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. espelho
9. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. espelho
10. ^ 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, 48
11. ^ a b c d e 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. espelho
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. espelho
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. espelho
14. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. espelho
15. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. espelho
16. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3881