guerra

Forms

guerra f (plural guerras)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Frankish *werʀu (“riot, quarrel”), a Germanic word that Medieval Latin wrote werra and guerra.^[2][1][3] Houaiss calls it West Germanic, with the sense “discord, revolt, fight”; it spread through the western Romance languages and replaced Latin bellum (“war”).^[2][4] It is written Old Galician-Portuguese guerra in the oldest texts;^[1] Wiktionary notes that the word appears in Latin charters of the region from 1019.^[1]

Meyer-Lübke's REW takes the Ibero-Romance words from French guerre; the editor of the glossary of the Crónica Geral thinks a French origin unlikely and follows Corominas.^[5][6] The Spanish word guerra is recorded from 1037.^[7] The same word is Galician guerra, Catalan guerra, Occitan guèrra and Italian guerra.^[1][8] Its Germanic relatives include Old High German werra (“scandal, quarrel”) and Middle Dutch werre (“disorder, war”).^[9][10]

Older dictionaries gave other sources: Bluteau (1712) a German word for “discord”, Vieira (1871) the French word, and Figueiredo (1899) the Old High German one.^[11][12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it for war between peoples (Este Juyão avia guerra / con perssiãos “this Julian was at war with the Persians”) and for any hostility or harm (desonrra e guerra).^[6]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word covered open war, feuds and any trouble: fazer guerra a alguém was “to harm, torment someone”, and a troubadour could have guerra no coraçon “war in his heart”.^[6] The phrase en paz e en guerra meant “always”.^[14]

Later senses are the art of war, military affairs (Ministério da Guerra), and figurative struggle or rivalry;^[2][15][16] Priberam and Michaelis also record a game of billiards for three players.^[2][15][16] In Trás-os-Montes guerra can mean a headache.^[17] Papiamentu has gera from the Portuguese.^[1]

Timeline

• 1019 – the word in Latin charters of the region.^[1]
• 13th century – first Portuguese records; frequent in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][6]
• c. 1400 – guerra in a fragment of the Flos Sanctorum.^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates guerra by Latin bellum.^[19]
• 1712 – Bluteau derives the word from German.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais defines guerra civil.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. war: armed conflict between nations, or between groups within a nation.^[2][1]
2. A military campaign, expedition.^[15]
3. Any fight or conflict, armed or not.^[2][15]
4. The art of war; military affairs.^[15][16]
5. (figurative) Hostility, rivalry, struggle: a guerra contra a fome.^[2][1]
6. A game of billiards (bilhar) for three players.^[16][21]

Word family

• guerrear
• guerreiro

Related words

• guerrilha
• bélico
• Medieval Latin werra
• Spanish guerra

Usage notes

Set phrases include guerra civil, guerra aberta “open war”, nome de guerra “assumed name” and navio de guerra “warship”.^[16][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. guerra
3. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. werra
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. guerra
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d 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. guerra
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. guerra
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. werra
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. guerre
10. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. guerra
11. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. guerra
12. ^ 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, 940
13. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 686
14. ^ 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. guerra
15. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. guerra
16. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. guerra
17. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. guerra
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. guerra
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. guerra
20. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 107
21. ^ 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. guerra