faixa

Forms

faixa f (plural faixas)^[1] The older spelling is faxa, of the 14th century.^[2] Bluteau (1712–1728) still enters faxa, ou faixa.^[3][4][2]

Etymology

Houaiss and Wiktionary take it as inherited from Latin fascia (“strip, band, bandage”), written Old Galician-Portuguese faixa and Old Galician-Portuguese faxa in the old texts.^[3][1] Nascentes, Aurélio and the REW instead bring the Latin word in through Catalan faxa.^[5][6][7] Nascentes points to the great age of the Catalan textile trade.^[5][6][7] In his fuller dictionary he also cites Nunes, who saw an exceptional outcome of the Latin group /sk/, swapped to /ks/ and then developed normally, and he allows that the word may have come from Old Occitan faissa.^[8] The Latin noun is related to fascis (“bundle”).^[9][10]

The Latin word gave Galician faixa, Spanish haza “strip of land”, Italian fascia, Romanian fașă and Old French faisse; the REW derives Spanish faja in the same way.^{[7][11][12][1]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the 14th century, spelt faxa.^[3] The CTA's first prose record of faxa is in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[13] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 glosses faixa with Latin fascia.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau describes the faxa as a long narrow strip of cloth, the band with which women girded themselves, and records it already as a term of architecture, for the bands of an architrave, and of heraldry, for the bar across the middle of a shield.^[2] Morais (1813) adds the band for swaddling a baby and, figuratively, a long strip of land.^[15] Figueiredo (1899) lists the zone around a planet as well.^[16]

Newer uses include the tracks of a record or CD, a range between two limits (faixa etária “age group”), and, in Brazil, the pedestrian crossing and the traffic lane.^[3][17] In sport it is the belt whose colour shows a fighter's grade.^[3] In Brazilian slang a faixa is a close friend.^[3][18] In the north of Portugal it is also a bundle of straw or firewood.^[19][20] Tetum has borrowed the word.^[1]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, spelt faxa.^[3]
• c. 1430 – faxa in the Horto do Esposo.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso enters faixa, Latin fascia.^[14]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses faixa with Latin fascia and strophium.^[21]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau enters faxa, ou faixa with its architectural and heraldic senses.^[2]
• 1813 – Morais records faixa de terra, a strip of land.^[15]
• 1899 – Figueiredo lists the zone around a planet.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A band or strip: anything much longer than it is wide or thick.^[3][1]
2. A sash or belt of cloth or leather worn round the waist; in martial arts, the belt whose colour shows the fighter's grade.^[3][17][1]
3. A broad band worn as a mark of office or honour: the presidential faixa.^[3][22]
4. A bandage.^[3][18]
5. (agriculture) A long, narrow piece of land.^[3][18]
6. A track on a record or CD.^[3][17][1]
7. A range between two limits: faixa etária “age group”, faixa de preços “price range”; a sector or part of something.^[3][17]
8. A traffic lane.^[22][1] (Brazil) a pedestrian crossing.^[3][22][1]
9. (architecture) A flat moulding running along a façade or entablature.^[3][18]
10. (heraldry) A fess, the band across the middle of a shield.^[3][1]
11. (Brazil, slang) A close friend, a mate.^[3][18]

Word family

• enfaixar
• desenfaixar
• faixar

Related words

• fáscia
• Latin fascia
• Spanish faja

Usage notes

The pedestrian crossing is faixa de pedestres in Brazil and passadeira in Portugal, where the carriageway is faixa de rodagem.^[23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. faxa
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. faixa
4. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. faixa
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. faixa
6. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. faixa
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3208
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 207
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. fascia
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. fascia
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. fascia
12. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. haza
13. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. faxa
14. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. faixa
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 5
16. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 596
17. ^ a b c d 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. faixa
18. ^ 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. faixa
19. ^ 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. faixa
20. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. faixa
21. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. faixa
22. ^ a b c 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. faixa
23. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4149