freio

Forms

freio m (plural freios)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote frẽo and freo; the spelling freio appears in the 15th century.^[2][3] Vieira (1871–1874) still heads the word frêo and refers freio to it.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin frēnum (“bridle, bit”), written Old Galician-Portuguese frẽo in the oldest texts, with a nasal vowel that was soon lost.^[2][3][1][5] The Latin /n/ between vowels was lost, a change that sets Galician-Portuguese apart from the other Romance languages, which keep it; the nasal vowel of the old form is its trace.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Galician freo, Spanish freno, Catalan fre, Occitan fren, French frein, Italian freno and Romanian frâu.^[8][9][1] It was also borrowed into Welsh as ffrwyn.^[8]

The Latin noun is from *frēnom.^[1] De Vaan and Wiktionary derive it from *dʰr-eh₁-nom “holding”, from the root *dʰer- (“to hold”), and de Vaan finds Walde and Hofmann's link with frētus (“relying on”) the most straightforward.^[10][1] He reports that Ernout and Meillet instead explained it from frendō (“to gnash”), as the thing the horse chews on, which he thinks possible but less likely.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria list panos e selas e frẽos “cloths and saddles and bits”, and a cantiga of Fernan Soarez de Quinhones says of a horse that it has the bit but no spurs (e tem o freo e esporas non).^[7][11] The word meant the bit and bridle of a horse or mule.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts use the word for the horse's bit: the Crónica Geral of 1344 has a rider sẽ sella e sem freo “without saddle and without bit”, a record of 1364 a freo muar “mule's bit”, and the Crónica Troiana praises bits so noble and rich.^[7] The Latin word was already used figuratively for anything that holds back, and the Portuguese word has the same sense of a check or restraint.^[12][2]

With the machines of the 19th century the word passed to the device that regulates or stops a movement: Silva Bastos and Figueiredo define it as the apparatus that controls steam engines and as the railway wagon that carries it.^[13][14] Today the brake of a car is the main sense in Brazil;^[2] Houaiss gives travão and breque as synonyms.^[2] In anatomy freio is the fold of tissue that holds an organ, such as the frenulum under the tongue.^[2][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – frẽos in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[7][3]
• 1344 – sem freo in the Crónica Geral.^[7]
• 1364 – hum freo muar “a mule's bit” in a document.^[7]
• 15th century – first record of the spelling freio.^[2]
• 1537 – freo in a private letter.^[16]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira heads the word frêo.^[4]
• 1899 – Figueiredo adds the regulator of machines and the brake wagon of the railways.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The bit of a bridle: the metal piece that passes through the mouth of a horse or mule, joined to the reins, by which it is guided.^{[2][17][18][1]}
2. A brake: a device that slows or stops a machine or vehicle; travão, breque.^[2][17][1]
3. (railways) A wagon fitted with a brake.^[2][19]
4. Each of the jaws of a locksmith's vice.^[2][20]
5. (figurative) Anything that checks, restrains or holds back: pôr um freio aos gastos.^[2][18]
6. (anatomy) A fold of mucous membrane that limits the movement of an organ; a frenulum, especially that of the tongue.^[2][15][1]

Word family

• enfrear
• enfreado
• desenfreado
• guarda-freio

Related words

• freada
• frear
• frenação
• frenagem
• frenar
• refrear
• sofrear
• Latin frenum
• Galician freo
• Spanish freno

Usage notes

Houaiss records the phrases tomar o freio nos dentes, of a horse that will not be guided and of a person carried away by enthusiasm or recklessness, and não ter freio na língua, to say whatever one likes.^[2]

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 e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. freio
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. freio
4. ^ 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, 769
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. freio
6. ^ Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa, ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, https://ciberduvidas.iscte-iul.pt
7. ^ a b c d e f g 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. freo
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3496
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. frenum
10. ^ 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
11. ^ 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. freo
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. frein
13. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. freio
14. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. freio
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. freio
16. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. freio
17. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. freio
18. ^ 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. freio
19. ^ 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. freio
20. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4471