hera

Forms

hera f (plural heras)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote edra;^[2][3] hedra and era appear in the 14th century.^[2][3] Hedra is still the Galician and Trás-os-Montes form.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin hedera (“ivy”), written Old Galician-Portuguese edra in the oldest texts.^[3][2][5][1]

The same Latin word is Galician hedra, Spanish hiedra, Catalan heura, Italian edera and Romanian iederă.^[6][1] French lierre has the article fused with Old French ierre.^[6][7][1]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[1][8] The ancients linked it with the verb in prehendō (“to seize”), as ivy clings to whatever it touches, and some scholars derive it from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to grasp”);^[9][1] De Vaan finds the form of such a word unusual and calls the link a guess.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha and Houaiss date edra to the 13th century.^[2][3] The Cantigas de Santa Maria describe an old church whose stone vault was con velleçe ja cuberta d'edra “already covered with ivy in its old age”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau describes how its roots force their way between the stones of walls and can bring buildings down, and notes the poets' ivy with golden berries, used for crowning poets and in the feasts of Bacchus.^[11] Morais (1789) repeats that poets were crowned with it, and the old Caldas Aulete calls ivy the emblem of constancy and friendship.^[12][13]

Compounds name other plants: hera-terrestre is ground ivy, a medicinal herb.^[14][15] Nascentes notes that the name is also wrongly given to the creeping fig.^[5] In Rio Grande do Sul it can mean any climber that bears no fruit.^[16]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, as edra; the Cantigas de Santa Maria have cuberta d'edra.^[2][3][10]
• 14th century – the spellings hedra and era.^[2][3]
• 1416 – hera in the Vida do Cativo Monge Confesso.^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the plant and the poets' ivy.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais heads the word hera.^[12]
• 1858–1873 – the learned derivatives hederígero, hederoso and hederáceo are first recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. ivy, any of the evergreen woody climbers of the genus Hedera.^[3][18][1]
2. Common ivy, Hedera helix, grown to cover walls.^[3][19]
3. (figurative) An emblem of constancy and friendship.^[20][13]

Related words

• hederáceo
• Latin hedera
• Galician hedra
• Spanish hiedra

Usage notes

Hera with a capital is the Greek goddess Hera, a learned borrowing from Greek, and has its own entry.^[1] The plant name sounds like era, “age” and the imperfect of ser.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. hera
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. hera
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 352
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. hera
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4092
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. lierre
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b 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. edra
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. hera
12. ^ 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, 80
13. ^ 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. hera
14. ^ 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, 964
15. ^ 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. hera
16. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. hera
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. hera
18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. hera
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4890
20. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. hera