ferro

Forms

ferro m (plural ferros)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ferrum (“iron”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ferro in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician ferro, Spanish hierro, Catalan ferro, French fer, Italian ferro and Romanian fier.^[5][6][1] Spanish had the older form fierro, recorded in a document of Cardeña in 1065;^[7][8] Corominas notes that this form was preferred in parts of Spain into the 19th century and still prevails in much of Spanish America.^[7][8]

The Latin word has no Indo-European etymology.^[9][10] De Vaan thinks it a loanword from an unidentified source, possibly a Phoenician dialect, comparing the Phoenician and Syriac words for iron.^[9][1] The DHLF recalls that the working of iron reached the Indo-European area late, after bronze, and that the names of the metal differ from one language to another.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss gives 1136 as the first date, from Machado's records.^[2] Cunha places the first record in the 13th century, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria already speak of un bordon de ferro “an iron staff” and of prisoners thrown en carcer… e en ferros “into prison and into irons”.^[3][11] The Crónica Geral uses ferro for the iron head of a lance and has the phrase a ferro et a fogo “with iron and with fire”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Already in the medieval texts the word named the metal, a thing made of it such as a spearhead, and, in the plural ferros, the shackles of a prisoner.^[11][12] Morais (1813) records the curling-iron, the head of a lance or arrow and the sense “anchor” in lançar ferro “to cast anchor”;^[13][4] Nascentes takes that nautical sense from Catalan.^[13][4] Figueiredo (1899) adds the brand burned on a horse, slang “money”, and the plural for fetters and prison.^[14]

Modern Portuguese uses ferro for appliances of the metal, above all the ferro de passar or ferro de engomar for pressing clothes.^[2][1] Brazilian slang gave it the senses “sugar-cane spirit”, “handgun” and “a hard situation”.^[2][15][1] The word lives on in the Portuguese creoles (Kabuverdianu féru, Sãotomense felu) and passed into Tetum as ferru.^[1]

Timeline

• 1136 – the first date Houaiss gives, from Machado's records.^[2]
• 13th century – un bordon de ferro and en ferros in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[11][3]
• 13th century – first records of ferrador, ferradura, ferragem and ferreiro.^[3]
• c. 1430 – first record in the CTA corpus, in the Horto do Esposo.^[16]
• 1572 – first record of the learned adjective férreo.^[3]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists ferro do arrado, the iron of the plough.^[17]
• 1813 – Morais records the sense “anchor”.^[13]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the slang sense “money”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chemistry) iron, the chemical element of atomic number 26 (symbol Fe).^[2][18][1]
2. The metal itself, widely used in industry and building, and any piece of it: uma grade de ferro.^[2][19][1]
3. A tool or appliance made of iron, especially the iron for pressing clothes: Passou a camisa a ferro.^[2][19][1]
4. The cutting or piercing part of a tool or weapon; a sword (espada).^[2][18]
5. A branding iron (ferrete), and the brand it leaves on cattle.^[2][18]
6. (nautical) An anchor (âncora).^[2][18]
7. (informal) A nuisance, an annoyance.^[2][18]
8. (slang) Money (dinheiro).^[2][15]
9. (Brazil, slang) A firearm, especially a small handgun.^[15][1]
10. (Brazil, informal) Sugar-cane spirit, cachaça.^[2]
11. (in the plural) Shackles, handcuffs (algemas); hence prison: pôr a ferros.^[2][18]

Word family

• ferrar
• ferrador
• ferradura
• ferragem
• ferramenta
• ferraria
• ferreiro
• ferrenho
• ferrete
• ferrugem
• ferrovia
• ferro-velho
• aferrar
• desferrar

Related words

• férreo
• férrico
• ferrífero
• Latin ferrum
• Galician ferro
• Spanish hierro

Usage notes

The phrase a ferro e fogo, already in the Crónica Geral, means “by every possible means”.^[11][15] The proverb quem com ferro fere com ferro será ferido “he who strikes with iron will be struck with iron”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ferro
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ferro
4. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ferro
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. ferrum
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 355
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
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. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fer
11. ^ a b c d e 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. ferro
12. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. ferro
13. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 15
14. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 609
15. ^ 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. ferro
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ferro
17. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ferro
18. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ferro
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4259