estrada

Forms

estrada f (plural estradas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin strāta (“paved road”), written Old Galician-Portuguese estrada or Old Galician-Portuguese strada in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] This is short for Latin via strāta “paved road”, in which the second word is the feminine past participle of sternō (“to spread out, to pave”).^[2][1][4] Medieval Latin used the noun for a paved road or highway.^[5]

The same word is Galician estrada, Spanish estrada, Catalan estrada, Italian strada and Old French estrée; it was also borrowed into German as Straße.^[6] It is found everywhere in the Romance area except Romanian, and it has meant the built road, as against the ordinary way, from the start.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss gives 906 as the first date, after Machado;^[2][3] Cunha records the word only from the 16th century.^[2][3] The first vernacular text in the CTA corpus that has it is the Horto do Esposo, copied between 1390 and 1437.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders estrada with Latin via regia “king's highway”, and Barbosa (1611) with via publica and strata.^[8][9] Bluteau (1712) records ladrão de estradas “highwayman”, the fortification term estrada encuberta, and Estrada de Santiago for the Milky Way, a name he explains by a popular confusion of Galaxia with Galiza.^[10] Morais (1813) adds the figurative estrada real, the surest way to a goal.^[11] Brazil formed estrada de ferro “railway” and estrada de rodagem “motor road”, and in Amazonia estrada is the round of rubber trees that a tapper taps in a day; in Ceará it is a short, comfortable gait of horses.^[12][13] Kabuverdianu stráda and Guinea-Bissau Creole strada come from it.^[1]

Timeline

• 906 – the first date Houaiss gives, after Machado.^[2]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo is the first CTA text with the word.^[7]
• 1500s – Cunha's first record.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary has estrada, “via regia”.^[8]
• 1712 – Bluteau records Estrada de Santiago for the Milky Way.^[10]
• 1858 – first record of estradar.^[3]
• 1899 – first record of estradeiro.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A road, wider than a path, linking two or more places, used by people, animals and vehicles: A estrada para a aldeia estava cortada.^[2][12][1]
2. Any way or route of travel, by land or by water.^[2][14]
3. (figurative) A course of action, a means of reaching an end; a way of life.^[2][12][15]
4. (figurative) Routine, the beaten track.^[16][17]
5. (Brazil, Amazonia) The group of rubber trees (seringueiras) that one tapper works in a day.^[12]
6. (Brazil, Ceará) A short, comfortable gait of riding horses.^[12][13]

Word family

• estradar
• estradeiro

Related words

• Latin strātus
• Galician estrada
• Italian strada

Usage notes

Estrada de Santiago is the Milky Way, and estrada de ferro is the Brazilian name for a railway, Portugal's caminho de ferro.^[16][12][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. estrada
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. estrada
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. estrada
5. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. strata
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. strata
7. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. estrada
8. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estrada
9. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. estrada
10. ^ 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. estrada
11. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 780
12. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. estrada
13. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. estrada
14. ^ 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. estrada
15. ^ 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. estrada
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. estrada
17. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3993