golpelha

Forms

golpelha f (plural golpelhas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vulpēcula (“little fox”), a diminutive of vulpēs (“fox”), written Old Galician-Portuguese golpella in the oldest texts.^[2][1][3] Lorenzo holds that the initial /ɡ/ is a normal sound change and needs no crossing with a Germanic word for the wolf or with Frankish hwelp (“whelp”), as Meyer-Lübke, García de Diego and Gamillscheg supposed.^[3] García de Diego himself calls that influence unnecessary.^[3][4] Wiktionary compares the same change in gastar.^[1]

The same Latin word, or a variant of it, is Spanish vulpeja, Asturian vulpeya, Catalan volpell, Occitan volpìlh, French goupil and Italian volpiglio.^[1] The Spanish word is first recorded as Old Spanish gulpeja in the Calila of 1251.^[5] For the French word the DHLF does assume a Germanic influence on the initial consonant.^[6]

The Latin word for the fox comes from earlier volpēs and Proto-Italic *wolpis, which Wiktionary derives from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wl̥p- (“fox”), comparing Ancient Greek ἀλώπηξ (alṓpēx) and Lithuanian lãpė.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin document of 1107 already has the place name Bolpeleiras.^[3] The masculine golpello is found in the 13th century, in a cantiga of Alfonso X that calls the devil peor que golpello “worse than a fox”, and as the surname of a knight, Roy Perez Golpelo, in 1261.^[3] The feminine appears in a proverb of the chronicles: nõ sabe golpella con quen trebella in the Galician translation of the Crónica Geral and nom sabe a golpelha com quem trebelha “the fox does not know whom it is playing with” in the Crónica de 1344.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word was already old-fashioned in the late Middle Ages, when raposa and raposo took its place, but it was still used in the 16th century.^[3] Morais (1789) quotes from the Eufrosina the proverb o lobo e a golpelha todos são de uma conselha “the wolf and the fox are all of one council”, said of people in league with one another.^[7][8] Modern dictionaries mark the word obsolete.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 1107 – the place name Bolpeleiras in a Latin document.^[3]
• 1261 – the surname Golpelo of a knight.^[3]
• 13th century – the masculine golpello in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3]
• 1344 – nom sabe a golpelha com quem trebelha in the Crónica de 1344.^[3]
• 14th century – Houaiss's date for the forms golpelha and golpella.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais quotes the proverb of the wolf and the fox from the Eufrosina.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete) The fox; raposa.^{[2][9][10][1]}

Related words

• Spanish vulpeja
• French goupil

Usage notes

Houaiss, Aurélio and the DLP also list a separate noun golpelha “large esparto basket; pannier”, which Houaiss refers to corbelha and dates to 1634.^[2][9][10] Aurélio and Nascentes derive it from Latin corbicula “little basket”, and Figueiredo calls it an alteration of corbelha.^[9][11][12] Pereira (1697) already glosses it as a fish basket.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. golpelha
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. golpella
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. vulpecula
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 846
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. goupil
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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. golpelha
9. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. golpelha
10. ^ a b 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. golpelha
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. golpelha
12. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 671
13. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. golpelha