faia

Forms

faia f (plural faias)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fāgea (“of beech”), the feminine of the adjective fāgeus, which was made a noun from a phrase with māteria (“timber”), “beech wood”.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} In the oldest texts it is Old Galician-Portuguese faia, also written Old Galician-Portuguese faya.^[1][3] Corominas also thinks that the word first named the timber of the tree.^[6]

The same Latin word is Galician faia, Asturian faya, Spanish haya and Catalan faja.^[1][6] The Latin noun the adjective is formed on, fāgus (“beech”), lives on in Romanian fag and in Old French fou, whose diminutive gave French fouet (“whip”).^[7][8]

The Latin noun goes back to *fāgos and Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ǵos (“beech”), the source also of English beech.^[1][9] De Vaan gives the reconstructed word the meaning “oak” or “beech”, since the Greek cognate φηγός (phēgós) names a kind of oak.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date, 1220, is a record of faia as a place name, which he takes from Machado.^[2] The tree is named in the 14th century in the Horto do Esposo, spelt faya.^[3][2] A cantiga d'escarnho of Fernan Soarez de Quinhones uses the phrase lhi frorecer a faia “his beech blossoms”, which the glossary takes, with a question mark, to mean that a matter turns out well.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) describes the beech as a common tree of the kingdom, with hard white wood and triangular nuts that are eaten, and adds the sense “beech wood”.^[13] In 1813 he gives faya as the better spelling, and Vieira still heads the word faia, ou faya.^[14][15]

The name passed to other trees: in the Azores and Madeira faia is the native Myrica faya, which also gave its name to the island of Faial, and in Brazil it names the small tree Emmotum nitens.^{[16][17][5][18]} Priberam also applies it to some poplars.^[19] In Bragança the word means a smooth, pliable stick without knots, and in another Portuguese survey the staff that cattle dealers carry.^[17][17]

Timeline

• 1220 – faia as a place name.^[2]
• 14th century – faya in the Horto do Esposo.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders faia with Latin fagus.^[20]
• 1789 – Morais adds the sense “beech wood”.^[13]
• 1813 – first record of faial “beech wood, grove of beeches”.^[21]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira heads the word faia, ou faya.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) beech: any tree of the genera Fagus and Nothofagus.^[2][1]
2. The common beech, Fagus sylvatica, a European tree grown as an ornamental and for its oily seeds.^[2][5]
3. The wood of the beech, used in cabinetmaking.^[16][13]
4. (Azores, Madeira) The firetree, Myrica faya, a small evergreen tree.^[16][1]
5. (Brazil) A small tree, Emmotum nitens, with yellow flowers and woody fruit.^[5][18]

Word family

• faial

Related words

• Latin fāgus
• Galician faia
• Spanish haya

Usage notes

Houaiss records two minor words of the same spelling.^[2] A masculine faia “rogue, fadista”, informal and used in Portugal, is of obscure origin.^[2][4] The DLP defines it as a man of bad habits who leads a dissolute life.^[16] A feminine faia “lead (in printing)” and, in Brazil, a mineral of the diamond workings is probably connected with the place name Faial.^[2][18]

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 i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. faia
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. faia
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. faia
5. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. faia
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 328
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3145
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fouet
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. fāgus
11. ^ 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. faia
12. ^ 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. faia
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, 94
14. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 5
15. ^ a b 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, 558
16. ^ 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. faia
17. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. faia
18. ^ a b c 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. faia
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. faia
20. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. faia
21. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. faial