floresta

Forms

floresta f (plural florestas)^[1] Fourteenth-century texts write furesta, foresta and froresta, and the 15th century fruesta.^[2][3] The form floresta is first recorded in 1572.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French forest (“wide wooded land”) (modern French forêt), whose form was probably influenced by flor “flower”.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The oldest Portuguese forms are Old Galician-Portuguese furesta, Old Galician-Portuguese foresta and Old Galician-Portuguese froresta.^[2][6]

Houaiss and Cunha take the French word from Late Latin forestis, “(wood) outside”.^[2][3] The DHLF explains it as a royal forest under the king's jurisdiction, a derivative of forum (“court of justice”), and considers a Frankish origin unlikely.^[7] Corominas and the Porto Editora dictionary instead propose a Frankish *forhist, a collective of a word for “pine”.^[8][9] Others link it to forīs (“outside”).^[10][11]

Spanish floresta was borrowed from the same French word and shows the same added /l/.^[8][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is in the Crónica Troiana of the 14th century: hun dia auẽo que eu andaua caçando... ẽna furesta “one day it happened that I was out hunting ... in the forest”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Camões uses florestas beside matos for the woods where deer are hunted.^[12][13] The link with flor was felt: Pereira (1697) renders the word as a field blooming with flowers, and Morais (1813) adds the sense “pleasant meadow with flowers”, while Bluteau, following Covarrubias, insists that it does not come from flores.^[14][13][12]

Figueiredo (1899) records the figurative senses “confusion, labyrinth” and “varied collection of maxims or tales”, and the massed lances of an army ready for battle.^[11] The word also became the title of literary miscellanies.^[15] Modern dictionaries add the ecological sense and many figurative uses, as uma floresta de mastros.^[5][2]

Timeline

• 14th century – furesta in the Crónica Troiana, and foresta and froresta in other texts.^[6][2]
• 15th century – the spelling fruesta.^[2]
• 1572 – Camões writes florestas in Os Lusíadas, the first record of the modern form.^[2][12]
• 1697 – Pereira renders it as a field in bloom.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau derives it from French, not from flores.^[12]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records “confusion, labyrinth” and “varied collection”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dense mass of trees covering a wide area; forest, mata.^[2][5][1]
2. (ecology) A land ecosystem dominated by trees.^[5]
3. (figurative) A great number of tall, thin things close together: uma floresta de antenas.^[2][16]
4. (figurative) A complex or confusing mass of things; labirinto.^[2][17]

Word family

• florestal
• florestar
• reflorestar
• desflorestar

Related words

• French forêt
• Spanish floresta

Usage notes

Floresta virgem is primeval forest not yet opened up by people.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. floresta
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. floresta
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. floresta
5. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. floresta
6. ^ 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. furesta
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. forêt
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 919
9. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4357
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. foresta
11. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. floresta
12. ^ a b c d e Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. floresta
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 40
14. ^ a b 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. floresta
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. floresta
16. ^ a b 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. floresta
17. ^ 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. floresta