guitarra

Forms

guitarra f (plural guitarras)^[1] The oldest record writes gitarra.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Arabic قيثارة (qīṯāra), which comes from Ancient Greek κιθάρα (kithára, “lyre”).^[2][3][5][1] Corriente and his co-authors place a Syriac form between the Arabic and the Greek.^[5] Wiktionary gives it as Aramaic קיתרא (qīṯārā).^[1] Corriente notes that the well-attested Andalusian Arabic name of the instrument cannot be the base of the Romance word, but agrees with Corominas that the word entered Europe through the Iberian Peninsula; he explains the double ⟨rr⟩ from a form with a long consonant.^[6] Corominas thinks Portuguese and Catalan took it directly from Arabic.^[7]

Older authors derived it otherwise: Bluteau (1712) from French guitarre, Silva Bastos and Figueiredo from Italian chitarra, and Nascentes reports that Meyer-Lübke also took it through Italian, while Cortesão hesitated between Spanish and Italian.^{[8][9][10][11]} Corominas finds Spanish guitarra first in Juan Ruiz, who distinguishes a Moorish and a Latin guitar.^[7]

The Greek word is Pre-Greek according to Beekes.^[12][1] Bluteau's remark that a Greek word for the chest lies behind the name has a basis in κίθαρος (kítharos, “thorax”), a derivative that Beekes lists.^[8][12] Houaiss and Wiktionary name the learned doublets cítara and cistre, and Wiktionary also cítola.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the 14th-century Crónica Troiana, which lists Salteyro, Çitola, Gitarra among the instruments played.^[4][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The 16th- and 17th-century dictionaries render the word by Latin lyra, and Cardoso (1569) by lyra minor.^[13][14][15] Bluteau (1712), Feijó (1734) and Morais (1789) equate it with the viola.^[8][16][17] Vieira (1871) describes a six-string instrument written in the treble clef an octave higher than it sounds.^[18]

In Portugal the guitarra (guitarra portuguesa) is the pear-shaped instrument with six pairs of metal strings that accompanies fado, and the six-string instrument is the viola; in Brazil the six-string instrument is the violão, and guitarra means above all the electric guitar.^[2][19][1] Brazilian slang uses it for a press that fakes banknotes, the instrument of a confidence trick.^[2][20] In Rio Grande do Sul it is the typical instrument of the pampas.^[21]

Timeline

• 14th century – gitarra in the Crónica Troiana.^[4][2][3]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders guitarra by Latin lyra minor.^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds tangedor de guitarra “guitar player”.^[14]
• 1712 – Bluteau derives the word from French and Greek.^[8]
• 1734 – Feijó equates it with the viola.^[16]
• 1871 – Vieira describes a six-string instrument.^[18]
• 1873 – first record of guitarrista.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (music) A guitar: any of several plucked string instruments with a long fretted neck and a flat-backed sound box.^[2][22][1]
2. (Brazil) The electric guitar, as opposed to the violão.^[2][1]
3. (Portugal) The Portuguese guitar, a pear-shaped instrument with six pairs of metal strings, used to accompany fado.^[2][19]
4. (Portugal) The classical six-string guitar; a viola.^[2][1]
5. (Brazil, slang) A machine for printing counterfeit banknotes.^[2][20]
6. (Brazil, ichthyology) A guitarfish, a ray of the genus Rhinobatos.^[2]

Word family

• guitarrista
• guitarrear
• guitarrada
• guitarreiro

Related words

• cítara
• cistre
• cítola
• Ancient Greek κιθάρα (kithára)
• Spanish guitarra

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 j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. guitarra
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. guitarra
4. ^ a b c 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. gitarra
5. ^ a b Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. guitarra
6. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 137
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 278
8. ^ a b c d Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. guitarra
9. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. guitarra
10. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. guitarra
11. ^ 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. guitarra
12. ^ a b 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. κιθάρα
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. guitarra
14. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. guitarra
15. ^ 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. guitarra
16. ^ a b 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. guitarra
17. ^ 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, 76
18. ^ 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, 945
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4825
20. ^ 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. guitarra
21. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. guitarra
22. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. guitarra