golpe

Forms

golpe m (plural golpes)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote colbe, colpe and golpe.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *colpus (“blow”), first written Old Galician-Portuguese colbe and Old Galician-Portuguese colpe, then Old Galician-Portuguese golpe.^[2][3][1] The Vulgar Latin form, which Du Cange found in the Salic Law, comes from Latin colaphus (“a blow with the fist, cuff”), through a form *colopus.^[2][3][5] Lorenzo notes that this form with two vowels is needed to explain the old variant with -b-.^[6] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek κόλαφος (kólaphos, “punch, buffet”).^[7][1] Beekes calls the Greek word a lowly word without a clear etymology, and counts it as Pre-Greek.^[8]

The step into Portuguese is disputed: the REW, Nascentes and Machado consider the Portuguese, Galician and Spanish word a borrowing from Gallo-Romance, through a form like Old Occitan colp.^[6][9][1] Nascentes reports Nunes's view that the change of /k/ to /ɡ/ took place within Portuguese, and that the final -e, present from the oldest forms, betrays a foreign origin.^[9] Lorenzo finds the borrowing very doubtful in so old and so rich a word, and links the noun with the old verb Old Galician-Portuguese golpar, the noun taking its ending because it was felt as a derivative of the verb.^[6] Nascentes's shorter dictionary also explains the noun as a back-formation from a verb.^[10]

The same Latin word is Galician golpe, Spanish golpe (colpe in the Cid), Catalan cop and Italian colpo.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century already use colbe for a blow of a lance or an arrow: o colbe da saeta “the blow of the arrow”.^[6] A cantiga d'escarnho of Afonso X has colpe, and the troubadour Johan Baveca writes dando colbes en vós “dealing you blows”.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

The medieval prose uses the word for blows dealt in battle: the Miragres de Santiago tell of a sword that cut many bodies in two with great golpes.^[6] Barbosa (1611) has both “a blow” and “a wound”, and the slashes cut in clothes.^[12] Morais (1789) adds “a great quantity” (hum bom golpe de dinheiro “a good lot of money”), a band of soldiers, a misfortune, and golpe de mestre “master stroke”.^[13] The sense of a crowd or quantity is now obsolete.^[2]

In modern Portuguese the word has many figurative senses: a sudden stroke of luck or genius, a blow of fortune, and in Brazil a trick or swindle to get money.^[2][1] Golpe de Estado “coup d'état” is often shortened to golpe, from which come golpismo and golpista.^[2][3][1] In Amazonia a golpe is the cut made in the rubber tree to tap the latex.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 13th century – colbe in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[6][2]
• 1344 – the Crónica Geral uses golpe and golpes many times.^[6]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo uses golpe.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary has golpe “a blow”.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds “wound” and the verb golpear.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais records “great quantity” and golpe de mestre.^[13]
• 20th century – first records of golpismo and golpista.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A blow: the impact of one body striking another.^[2][17][1]
2. A wound, cut or bruise left by such a blow.^[2][17]
3. A strike with the hand or a weapon; a technique in wrestling or the martial arts.^[2][18]
4. (figurative) A sudden misfortune, a hard blow.^[2][1]
5. (figurative) A sudden or decisive act: golpe de sorte, golpe de mestre.^[2][1]
6. (figurative) A trick or swindle; a fraud.^[2][1]
7. (politics) A coup, short for golpe de Estado.^[2][1]
8. A gust of wind.^[2][1]
9. (obsolete) A crowd or quantity of people or things coming at once.^[2][1]
10. (Amazonia) A cut made in the rubber tree to obtain latex.^[2][14]

Word family

• golpear
• golpismo
• golpista
• golpe de estado
• golpe baixo
• golpe de mestre

Related words

• golpeado
• golpeamento
• Latin colaphus
• Spanish golpe

Usage notes

Houaiss and Aurélio also record golpe as an altered form of gole “a gulp”.^[2][17]

Fixed phrases include golpe baixo “a low blow”, golpe de misericórdia “coup de grâce” and golpe de vista “a glance”.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. golpe
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. golpe
4. ^ a b 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. colpe
5. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. colpus
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. golpe
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. colaphus
8. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. κόλαφος
9. ^ a b 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. golpe
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. golpe
11. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 166
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. golpe
13. ^ 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, 62
14. ^ 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. golpe
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. golpe
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. golpe
17. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. golpe
18. ^ 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. golpe