gruta

Forms

gruta f (plural grutas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Sicilian grutta, a southern form of the Italian grotta, in the view of Houaiss, Nascentes and Aurélio;^[2][3][4] Nascentes and Aurélio name Neapolitan or Sicilian as the source, and Houaiss Sicilian, Calabrian or Sardinian.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary instead has Portuguese take the word from Catalan gruta, which itself came from the Sicilian and Old Neapolitan form.^[1] Spanish gruta, recorded from 1433, is traced by Corominas to the same Old Neapolitan or Sicilian word.^[5][6]

The Italian word continues Vulgar Latin *grupta or *crupta, a popular form of Latin crypta (“covered passage, vault, cave”).^[2][1] The Latin word was taken from Ancient Greek κρυπτή (kruptḗ, “vault, crypt”), the feminine of κρυπτός (kruptós, “hidden”), from the verb κρύπτω (krúptō, “to hide”).^[2][1][5] Nascentes explains the Latin ⟨y⟩ of the Greek word as having been treated like /u/, and the initial /g/ as a softening of /k/ already in popular Latin.^[7] Bluteau in the 1710s gave the same explanation of the vowel: since the Greek letter was once pronounced /u/, the common people said the Latin word with /u/.^[8]

The learned doublet is cripta, recorded in 1649, taken straight from the Latin word.^[2][9][1] Portuguese also has grota, dated 1540, which Houaiss takes directly from the Italian word.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to 1548, with the sense of a natural hollow in the rock, a cave.^[2] Pereira's Thesouro of 1697 renders it by Latin crypta and vorago “abyss”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In the early 18th century Bluteau described a gruta as a cave or an underground building, such as the vaulted rooms under the churches of Rome, and quoted huma medonha gruta “a fearsome grotto” from a life of the Evangelist.^[8] Morais (1789, 1813) defines it as a cavern or hollow in the ground between mountains, and Vieira (1871–1874) as a natural cave or one made by hand, quoting Corte-Real's poem on the shipwreck of Sepúlveda.^[12][13] The modern dictionaries add an artificial cave built for ornament, and, in Portugal, an arbour of interwoven branches.^[2][14][15] In Rio Grande do Sul it is also a cave made into a shrine for the image of a saint.^[16]

Timeline

• 887 – a Latin text has the Low Latin form crupta or grupta, according to Vieira.^[13]
• 1548 – first Portuguese record of gruta.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro lists Gruta.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau explains the word from Greek through Latin crypta.^[8]
• 1734 – Feijó glosses it simply as cova “cave”.^[17]
• 1789 – Morais's dictionary defines it as a cavern.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cave or grotto, a hollow of varying shape and depth, usually in limestone rock.^[2][19][1]
2. An artificial cavity built in the shape of a cave.^[2][19]
3. A hollow worn by water in the bank of a river; the same as gruna.^[2][4]
4. (Portugal) An arbour of interwoven branches forming a hollow like a cave.^[14][15]

Related words

• cripta
• grota
• grotesco
• Latin crypta
• Italian grotta
• Spanish gruta

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 g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. gruta
3. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. gruta
4. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. gruta
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 229
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gruta
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. 251
8. ^ 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. gruta
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cripta
10. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. grota
11. ^ a b 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. gruta
12. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 103
13. ^ a b 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, 930
14. ^ 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. gruta
15. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4801
16. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. gruta
17. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gruta
18. ^ 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, 72
19. ^ 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. gruta