esquife

Forms

esquife m (plural esquifes)^[1] Houaiss records a 14th-century form esciphe and the spelling esquife from 1500.^[2]

Etymology

Houaiss, Nascentes and Aurélio take it as borrowed from Catalan esquif, which is from Italian schifo (“a small boat serving a larger ship”), recorded before 1470, itself from Lombardic *skif.^[2][3][4] Cunha and the DLP derive it directly from the Italian word, which Cunha takes from the Lombardic one.^[5][6] Wiktionary traces the Lombardic word to Proto-Germanic *skipą (“boat, ship”).^[1]

Houaiss compares German Schiff and English ship, from the same Germanic word.^[2] Kroonen considers that Germanic noun an early loan from Latin scyphus (“drinking cup”), which is σκύφος (skúphos, “cup”).^[7] Orel instead takes it as a native word meaning “framework”, related to Lithuanian skiẽbti (“to rip, to cut”).^[8]

Older scholars proposed other sources: Morais (1813) took the word from English skiff, Vieira from Greek, and Cortesão, as Nascentes reports, from Spanish, with a Greek origin.^[9][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is the 14th-century form esciphe, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The spelling esquife and the sense “small boat” are dated 1500 by Houaiss and Cunha;^[2][5][12] Pero Vaz de Caminha's letter of that year tells how the ships sailed along the coast with their boats and skiffs tied at the stern.^[2][5][12]

Semantic evolution

In the age of the voyages the esquife was the small boat that each ship carried to put people ashore, as Morais still defines it in 1789.^[2][13] Cardoso (1569) renders it with Latin scapha.^[14] By shape the word came to mean a coffin or bier: Houaiss dates this sense to 1600 and Cunha to 1693, but Barbosa already lists in 1611 the esquife “in which the poor and the common people are carried to burial”.^{[2][5][15][11]} Feijó (1734) gives both senses, and Morais adds “a narrow bed used in hospitals”.^[16][13]

Today the coffin is the main sense, and the boat is historical.^[2][4] The DLP adds a long, narrow racing boat for one rower, the sense in which ILTEC treats esquife as the adapted form of English skiff.^[6][17]

Timeline

• 14th century – the form esciphe.^[2]
• 1500 – esquife “small boat” in Pero Vaz de Caminha's letter.^[5][12]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders it with Latin scapha.^[14]
• 1600 – Houaiss's first date for the sense “coffin”.^[2]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists the esquife on which the poor were carried to burial.^[15]
• 1693 – Cunha's date for the sense “coffin, urn”.^[5]
• 1789 – Morais gives the ship's boat, a rich bier and a narrow hospital bed.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A coffin or bier on which the dead are carried to burial; ataúde, féretro.^[2][4][6]
2. (nautical, historical) A small boat carried by a larger ship and used to serve it, especially by the naus and galleons.^[2][4][1]
3. A small boat, rowed or sailed.^[4][18]
4. (sport) A long, narrow racing skiff, usually for one rower.^[6][19]
5. (obsolete) A small, narrow bed; a cot.^[20][21]

Related words

• Catalan esquif
• Italian schifo
• English skiff

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. esquife
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. esquife
4. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. esquife
5. ^ 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. esquife
6. ^ a b c d 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. esquife
7. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 446
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 340
9. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 767
10. ^ 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, 373
11. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. esquife
12. ^ a b c 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. esquife
13. ^ 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, 56
14. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. esquife
15. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. esquife
16. ^ 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. esquife
17. ^ ILTEC – Instituto de Linguística Teórica e Computacional, Portal da Língua Portuguesa, http://www.portaldalinguaportuguesa.org, p. s.v. skiff
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. esquife
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3927
20. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. esquife
21. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 560