horto

Forms

horto m (plural hortos)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote orto;^[2][3] Houaiss records the spelling horto in the 13th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin hortus (“garden”), written Old Galician-Portuguese orto in the oldest texts.^[3][4][1][2]

The same Latin word is Galician horto, Spanish huerto, Catalan hort, Old French ort and Italian orto.^[5][6][1] García de Diego lists the feminine horta “kitchen garden” beside it, and Estraviz derives the Galician feminine from the masculine.^[6][7]

The Latin noun is from Proto-Italic *hortos and Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰortós (“enclosure”), from *ǵʰer- (“to enclose”).^[1][8] Its cognates include Oscan 𐌇𐌞𐌓𐌆 (húrz, “enclosure”), Ancient Greek χόρτος (khórtos, “enclosed place, feeding place”) and Old Irish gort (“field”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use orto for a garden: a girl appears en un orto u fora trebellar “in a garden where she had gone to play”, and another cantiga pairs vinnas e ortos “vineyards and gardens”.^[2] A miracle there is called the orto dos viços do parayso “garden of the delights of paradise”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cunha glosses the old word as “garden, orchard”, the sense of the Latin noun.^[4][9] Bluteau (1712–1728) notes that it was said above all of the Garden of Gethsemane, where Christ prayed and sweated blood, and Morais repeats this in 1813.^[10][11] From that use comes the figurative sense “place of suffering”.^[3][12]

Modern Portuguese uses horto for a small ornamental garden or vegetable plot, and especially for a nursery where plants are grown for research, propagation or sale, often a public one (horto florestal).^[3][13][1] A Portuguese dialect survey records horto for Galician kale, and Estraviz gives the Galician sense “cabbage stump”.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 974 – a Latin charter writes pomares ortos ortales.^[2]
• 13th century – orto in the Cantigas de Santa Maria;^[2][3] Houaiss records the spelling horto in the same century.^[2][3]
• 1513 – first instance in the CTA, in the Livro dos Mártires.^[16]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau ties the word to the Garden of Gethsemane.^[10]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira defines it as a small enclosed plot with vegetables and fruit trees.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fairly small piece of ground where ornamental plants are grown; a garden (jardim).^[3][12][1]
2. A small kitchen garden (horta).^[3][13][1]
3. A nursery where plants are grown for study, propagation or sale, often state-owned: o horto florestal da cidade.^[3][13][1]
4. (figurative) A place of suffering, after the Garden of Olives where Jesus went through his agony.^[3][18]

Word family

• horto florestal

Related words

• horta
• hortaliça
• hortelã
• hortelão
• horticultor
• horticultura
• Latin hortus
• Spanish huerto

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. orto
3. ^ 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. horto
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. horto
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4194
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. hortus
7. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. horta
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. hortus
10. ^ 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. horto
11. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 121
12. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. horto
13. ^ a b c 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. horto
14. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. horto
15. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. horto
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. horto
17. ^ 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, 989
18. ^ 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. horto