farinha

Forms

farinha f (usually uncountable, plural farinhas)^[1] The 13th-century texts write farynna and farỹa;^[2][3] farinha is recorded from the 14th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin farīna (“meal, flour”), written Old Galician-Portuguese farynna in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] The same Latin word is Galician fariña, Spanish harina, Catalan farina, French farine, Italian farina and Romanian făină.^[5][1]

The Latin noun is formed from far (“emmer wheat; grain, flour”), probably through an older *farrīna.^[6][7] It seems first to have meant flour of emmer and was then used of any grain.^[7] De Vaan traces the base to *fars (“flour”) and compares the Celtic words for bread, such as Welsh bara.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In a satirical cantiga Alfonso X has a man say he will go along the coast vendend' azeit' e farinha “selling oil and flour”, and Pero Gomez Barroso uses the saying a pagar é a farinha “now the flour must be paid for”, that is, now one must bear the consequences.^[8][9] Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the flour of wheat and other grains;^[10] Bluteau in 1712 still defines it as wheat ground to powder, with a cross-reference for the “flours of Brazil”.^[10] Nascentes notes that the word properly meant wheat flour, as it still does in Portugal, while in Brazil it names cassava flour.^[4] Brazilian Portuguese has many compounds for kinds of cassava flour: farinha de mesa, farinha-d'água, farinha de pau, farinha suruí.^[2][11][12]

The word also became the name of trees: in central Brazil the Dimorphandra mollis and in Pernambuco the Peltophorum dubium.^[2][1] Nascentes suggests the first was so called because it might yield some flour.^[4] In the Douro and Trás-os-Montes it names powdery mildew of the vine, and in colloquial speech cocaine.^[13][14][1]

Spanish of the River Plate took fariña “cassava flour” from Portuguese.^[15] The word also passed into Guinea-Bissau Creole as forinha and into Kristang as farinya.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – farynna and farỹa;^[2][3][8] Alfonso X's cantiga on selling azeit' e farinha.^[2][3][8]
• 14th century – the spelling farinha.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – farinha in the Horto do Esposo (manuscript of 1390–1437).^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses farinha with Latin farina.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists farinha peneyrada “sifted flour”.^[18]
• 1858 – first records of farinheiro, farinhento and farinhoso.^[3]
• 1881 – first record of farinheira.^[3]
• 1899 – first record of farinhada.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. flour, meal: the powder obtained by grinding cereal grains: farinha de trigo, farinha de milho.^[2][11][1]
2. A powder made by grinding certain seeds and roots;^[2][11][1] (Brazil) especially cassava flour, eaten with meals: Põe farinha no feijão.^[2][11][1]
3. (Brazil, botany) A small leguminous tree, Dimorphandra mollis, also called barbatimão.^[2][11]
4. (Pernambuco, botany) The tree Peltophorum dubium, also called canafístula.^[2][1]
5. (Portugal, regional) powdery mildew of the vine.^[14][13]
6. (colloquial) cocaine.^[1]

Word family

• farinhada
• farinheira
• farinheiro
• farinhento
• farinhoso
• farinhar
• maria-farinha

Related words

• farináceo
• Latin farina
• Galician fariña
• Spanish harina

Usage notes

Ser farinha do mesmo saco “to be flour from the same sack” is said of people or things of the same kind, usually with the same faults.^[2][19] Tirar farinha means to get the better of someone or to demand an explanation.^[2][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. farinha
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. farinha
4. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. farinha
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3197
6. ^ 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, p. s.v. far
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. farīna
8. ^ a b c 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. farinha
9. ^ 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. farinha
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. farinha
11. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. farinha
12. ^ 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. farinha
13. ^ a b 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. farinha
14. ^ 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. farinha
15. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 320
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. farinha
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. farinha
18. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. farinha
19. ^ a b 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. farinha