froco

Forms

froco m (plural frocos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin floccus (“tuft of wool”), the popular form beside the learned floco.^[2][1][3] Nascentes, Aulete and Figueiredo treat it as a variant or corruption of the learned word.^[4][5][6] Houaiss and Wiktionary make the two doublets from the one Latin word.^[2][1] Bluteau already guessed in the 1710s that the word came from Latin.^[7]

The same Latin word is Galician froco, Spanish fleco, Catalan floc, French floc, Italian fiocco and Romanian floc.^[8][9] The Spanish word, meaning “fringe”, comes from older Old Spanish flueco, recorded in 1490.^[10]

De Vaan finds no etymology for the Latin word and thinks a connection with Old High German blaha (“coarse linen”) too imprecise.^[11] Wiktionary gives that connection and, as an alternative, a borrowing from Proto-Germanic *flukkô (“flock of wool”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology finds the word in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (cantiga 151): tollend' os frocos das testas e descobrind' as moleiras “taking the frocos from their foreheads and uncovering the crowns of their heads”.^[13] Mettmann's glossary reads frocos there as a friar's hood or habit, comparing froque, which another cantiga uses for a habit worn as armour.^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

Lorenzo notes that Machado dated the word only to 1706.^[13] Bluteau (1712–1728) describes froco as a little cord of silk or wool woven with short loose tufts, used to trim clothes.^[7] Morais (1789) adds the figurative frocos de neve, snow hanging from trees or falling in flakes, and Aulete extends it to anything light that resembles flakes.^[15][5] Brazilian Romantic writers used it in this sense;^[16] José de Alencar compared a fair complexion to a froco of cotton.^[16] Today it is a synonym of floco and the name of a tufted yarn for embroidery and trimmings.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – frocos in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][13]
• 1706 – Machado's first date for the word.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes froco as a tufted cord for trimming clothes.^[7]
• 1789 – Morais records frocos de neve.^[15]
• 1857 – froco in José de Alencar's O Guarani.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A light, loose mass or tuft of fine filaments, such as a flake of snow, cotton or cloud; the same as floco.^[2][3][1]
2. A tufted thread of silk or wool, cut into small pieces or twisted into a cord, used for embroidery and for trimming clothes; chenille.^[2][17][1]
3. Anything light or vaporous that looks like such a tuft.^[3]

Related words

• floco
• Latin floccus
• Galician froco
• Spanish fleco

Usage notes

Michaelis records the plant name froco-rasteiro for a medicinal clubmoss, Lycopodium clavatum.^[18] In Portugal the word has also been recorded for any kind of fringe.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. froco
3. ^ a b c 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. froco
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. froco
5. ^ 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. froco
6. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 636
7. ^ 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. froco
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3375
9. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. froco
10. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fleco
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. floccus
13. ^ 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. froco
14. ^ 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. froque
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 638
16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. froco
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. froco
18. ^ 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. froco
19. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. froco