freixo

Forms

freixo m (plural freixos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fraxinus (“ash tree”), written Old Galician-Portuguese freyxo in the 13th century.^[2][3][1] Nascentes traces it through the older forms Old Galician-Portuguese freixeno and Old Galician-Portuguese freixeo, and lists Old Galician-Portuguese fraisseo too, after Cornu, Leite de Vasconcelos and Nunes.^[4][5] The Latin word was feminine, but its masculine ending made the Portuguese word masculine.^[5]

The same Latin word is Galician freixo, Spanish fresno, Catalan freixe, French frêne, Italian frassino and Romanian frasin.^[5][1] The Spanish word appears as Old Spanish fréxeno in 932 and in its present form in 1210.^[6]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥Hǵ-s-inos for the Latin word, an adjective to the word for the birch, so that it is related to Sanskrit भूर्ज (bhūrjá, “Himalayan birch”), Lithuanian béržas, Russian берёза (berjóza) and Old High German birihha.^[7][1] The DHLF, on the other hand, calls the Latin word one of unknown origin.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears first in place names inside Latin charters: uilla nostra propria nominata freiseno in 907 and usque in illo freixeno in 961.^[5][9] Houaiss's first date, 1141, is the place name freixu.^[2] The common noun for the tree is recorded in the 13th century as freyxo.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) describes it at length as a tall, straight forest tree with smooth grey bark and hard white wood.^[10] Morais (1813) adds a poetic sense, “ship”, with a line in which ships are freixos that tear the waves.^[11] Modern dictionaries name the genus Fraxinus and especially the common ash, whose elastic wood is used for rackets, cues and other sports goods.^[2][12] In Portugal the native species is the narrow-leaved ash.^[13][14] The word is also common in Portuguese and Galician place names.^[9]

Timeline

• 907 – freiseno, a place name in a Latin charter.^[5][9]
• 961 – freixeno in a Latin charter.^[5]
• 1141 – the place name freixu, Houaiss's first date.^[2]
• 1265 – the form frexeno.^[9]
• 13th century – freyxo.^[2]
• 15th century – the spelling freixo.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates Freixo by Latin fraxinus.^[15]
• 17th century – first record of the learned adjective fraxíneo.^[3]
• 1813 – Morais records the poetic sense “ship”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ash tree: any tree of the genus Fraxinus, of the olive family, with elastic wood.^[2][13][1]
2. The common ash, Fraxinus excelsior, whose wood is used for rackets, cues and other sports goods.^[2][12]
3. (poetic, dated) A ship (navio).^[11]

Related words

• fraxíneo
• Galician freixo
• Spanish fresno

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. freixo
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. freixo
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. freixo
5. ^ a b c d e f Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 226
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
7. ^ 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. fraxinus
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. frêne
9. ^ a b c d 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. freixo
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. freixo
11. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 59
12. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. freixo
13. ^ 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. freixo
14. ^ 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. freixo
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. freixo