espiga

Forms

espiga f (plural espigas)^[1] Houaiss records the 14th-century spelling spiga, which the DDGM also finds in the Orto do Esposo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin spīca (“ear of grain; spike”), written Old Galician-Portuguese espiga in the oldest texts.^[2][4][5][1]

The same Latin word is Galician espiga, Spanish espiga, Catalan espiga, Occitan espic, French épi, Italian spiga and Romanian spic.^[6][1] The French word comes from the neuter by-form spīcum.^[7] Varro reports that country people said speca.^[8][9]

De Vaan reconstructs *speikā and *speig-, and compares Germanic words for pointed objects: speihha (“spoke”), spāca (“spoke”) and spijker (“nail”).^[10] Wiktionary connects it, more loosely, with *spey- (“sharp, sharp stick”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo cites a Latin charter of 1085 with per spica de lonbato, where spica means a ridge or summit.^[3] The Galician-Portuguese word appears in the 13th century in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, in cantiga 315, about a woman who had hũa espiga de triigo “an ear of wheat” in her belly, and in cantiga 399, which compares hũa agulla longa com' espiga “a needle as long as an ear”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) gloss the word with Latin spica.^[11][12] Folqman (1755) adds the hangnail, a bit of skin that comes loose at the root of a nail.^[13] Morais (1813) gives espiga de uvas, a bunch of grapes still in flower, the pointed end of a piece of wood or iron that fits into a hole, and the tang of a knife or sword that goes into the hilt.^[14] Houaiss dates the carpentry sense to 1713 and the tang to 1789.^[2]

Figueiredo (1899) has the ridge of a roof, and the popular senses “setback, loss, nuisance, trick”.^[15] The star Spica of Virgo got its Portuguese name, Espiga, from the ear of wheat held by the figure of the constellation.^[16][17] In Maranhão espiga is a mocking nickname for people from Piauí, and in Bahia a slang word for the penis.^[2][18] Schlee describes the ear of maize of southern Brazil.^[19]

Timeline

• 1085 – spica “ridge” in a Latin charter.^[3]
• 1200s – espiga de triigo in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][4]
• 1300s – the spelling spiga.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary lists espiga.^[11]
• 1713 – first record of the carpentry sense, a tenon.^[2]
• 1755 – Folqman records the sense “hangnail”.^[13]
• 1789 – first record of the sense “tang of a tool”.^[2]
• 1920 – first record of the sense “shank of a nail or screw”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) A spike: an inflorescence with flowers set directly along a central axis.^[2][17][20]
2. An ear of wheat, maize, barley or another cereal, the part that holds the grains; a corncob.^[2][20][1]
3. A hangnail.^[2][21][1]
4. The part of a piece of wood or metal that fits into a hole in another; a tenon; the tang of a blade or tool that goes into its handle.^[2][17][22]
5. The shank of a nail or screw, between the head and the point.^[2][21]
6. The ridge of a roof; cumeeira.^[23][21]
7. (figurative, informal) A nuisance (maçada); a setback, loss or trick.^[2][17]
8. (astronomy, capitalised) Spica, the alpha star of Virgo.^[2][17]
9. (Brazil, Maranhão, pejorative) A nickname for a person from Piauí.^[2][18]

Word family

• espigar
• espigado
• espigão
• respigar

Related words

• espículo
• Latin spīca
• Spanish espiga

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 o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. espiga
3. ^ a b c d e 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. espiga
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. espiga
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. espiga
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8145
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. épi
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. spīca
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. spīca
10. ^ 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. spīca
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. espiga
12. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. espiga
13. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. espiga
14. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 760
15. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. espiga
16. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. espiga
17. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. espiga
18. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. espiga
19. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. espiga
20. ^ 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. espiga
21. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. espiga
22. ^ 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. espiga
23. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3894