gaxeta

Forms

gaxeta f (plural gaxetas)^[1] Older spellings are gacheta and the nautical gaichete.^[1][2][3]

Etymology

Houaiss, Cunha and Aurélio call it of obscure origin.^[4][5][6] The old Caldas Aulete, Silva Bastos and Figueiredo considered it borrowed from Ligurian gassetta, and Wiktionary agrees.^[7][8][1] The 1975 Aurélio still gave the Genoese word with a question mark.^[9] Sousa (1945), quoted in the TLPGP, accepts the Genoese origin and argues from the spelling with ⟨x⟩ that the loan is no later than the 16th century, when ⟨x⟩ and ⟨s⟩ were often confused.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1713, from Bluteau's dictionary, which has the nautical gaichete, a braided cord used to furl the sails;^[11][3] Vieira later refers gaxeta to that form.^[4][11][3] Cunha dates gaxeta itself to 1813.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is nautical: a band for furling the sails on the yards and a plaited cord to cover cables.^[5][8] With the steam engine the word passed to the plait of flax, straw or rubber packed between the lid and mouth of a boiler to seal it, and today it names any gasket or seal of a joint or a moving part.^[7][4][6] In Portuguese fishing it also names a strip of coarse netting that joins a net to its rope.^[10]

Timeline

• 1713 – Bluteau's dictionary has gaichete, a braided cord to furl sails.^[4][11]
• 1813 – Cunha's date for gaxeta.^[5]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira refers gaxeta to gaichete.^[3]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the sense of a boiler seal.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) A braid made of rope, in various forms for use on board ship; a band to furl the sails on the yards.^[4][6][12]
2. (mechanics) A gasket or packing of compressible material (asbestos, flax, rubber, metal) that seals a joint, a cylinder lid or a moving part.^[4][6][12]
3. (Portugal, fishing) A strip of coarse netting that strengthens the join between a net and its rope.^[10]

Related words

• gacheta

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. gaxeta
3. ^ a b c d 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, 845
4. ^ 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. gaxeta
5. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. gaxeta
6. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. gaxeta
7. ^ 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. gaxeta
8. ^ a b c Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. gaxeta
9. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 704
10. ^ a b c 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. gaxeta
11. ^ 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. gaichete
12. ^ 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. gaxeta