fresta

Forms

fresta f (plural frestas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote fẽestra and feestra in the 13th–15th centuries, then freesta, frestra, fiestra and fresta.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fenestra (“window”), written Old Galician-Portuguese fẽestra, also without the tilde, in the oldest texts.^[4][5][3][1] The Latin -n- between vowels was lost, and the /r/ then moved into the first syllable: freesta, then fresta.^[6][7][1]

The same Latin word is Galician fiestra, Old Spanish hiniestra, Catalan finestra, French fenêtre, Italian finestra and Romanian fereastră.^[8][1]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown to the OLD.^[9] Wiktionary takes it from Etruscan; the DHLF finds that hypothesis insufficiently supported.^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the word means “window”: one figure “saw this from a window” (quand' aquesto viu dũa fẽestra), another “looked through a window … she shut the windows”.^[2][3] The Crónica Geral tells of someone who had the windows of the towers closed.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word meant any window in the medieval language; a text of the Franciscans already uses the new form, estando ela a hũa fresta “as she stood at a window”.^[2][3] As the word narrowed to a small opening, Cardoso (1569) translates it with Latin fenestrella and Barbosa (1611) with fenestella, both “small window”, and Bluteau explains it as a little window, though sometimes the same as janela.^[11][12][13] Bluteau and Morais also record fresta nos dentes, a gap between the teeth.^[13][14]

Today it is above all a narrow opening for light and air, a slit or crack; in architecture a tall, narrow window, such as those of Gothic churches.^[4][15] In Rio Grande do Sul it is the gap of a door or window left ajar.^[16] The Galician cognate kept the sense “window”.^[17]

Timeline

• 13th century – fẽestra “window” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][4]
• 14th century – Houaiss's first record of the form fresta.^[4]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437) writes freesta.^[18]
• 1496 – first record of fresta in the CTA corpus.^[19]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates Fresta as Latin fenestrella.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as a small window and records fresta nos dentes.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narrow opening in a wall or roof that lets in light and air.^[4][20][1]
2. Any narrow gap or crack (fenda) through which light passes; a chink: espreitou pela fresta da persiana.^[4][21][1]
3. (architecture) A tall, narrow window; a lancet window.^[4][15][1]

Word family

• enfrestado

Related words

• fenestra
• Galician fiestra

Usage notes

Houaiss treats the word as a doublet of the learned fenestra, from the same Latin noun.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. fresta
3. ^ 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. feestra
4. ^ 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. fresta
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fresta
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fresta
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. fresta
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3242
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fenêtre
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fresta
12. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fresta
13. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fresta
14. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 60
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fresta
16. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. fresta
17. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. fiestra
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. freesta
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. fresta
20. ^ 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. fresta
21. ^ 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. fresta