isca

Forms

isca f (plural iscas)^[1] The 14th century wrote ysca.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ēsca (“food; bait”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ysca in the 14th century.^[2][3][5][1] Its initial ⟨i⟩ is a difficulty, which the sources explain in different ways.^[2][5][3] Nascentes supposes a Vulgar Latin form with a short ⟨e⟩, perhaps after edō (“to eat”).^[5] Houaiss reports Machado's remark that the ⟨i⟩ might point to a back-formation from iscar.^[2] Cunha starts from an inchoative verb of the same root.^[3]

The same Latin word is Galician isca and Galician esca, Spanish yesca, Catalan esca, Italian esca, French esche and Romanian iască.^[1][6][7][8] In Late Latin the word took the sense “what feeds the fire”, which gave the Spanish word its sense “tinder”.^[8][9][10]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun from the root of the verb with a suffix ⟨-sk-⟩, and the root goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in a 14th-century Galician Estoria quoted by Lorenzo, has the tinder sense: with the bow a man found seu esqueyro et sua ysca et seu pedernal “his tinder pouch, his tinder and his flint”.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Nascentes thinks the word was first taken as the food of the fire, as isqueiro shows, and then as the bait put on a hook; the strips of liver called iscas would be named by comparison with bait.^[5] The esqueyro of the 14th century was the pouch for tinder, flint and money; the sense “lighter” is modern.^[12] Morais (1813) has the fish or meat put on the hook, the tinder, and the figurative lure (as delicias são isca dos vicios, after Barros).^[13] Vieira (1871) records pegar a toda a isca, said of a greedy man who bites at any gain.^[14]

Figueiredo (1899) adds the popular strip of liver fried in lard.^[15] In Portugal iscas are thin slices of seasoned fried liver, and in Porto strips of salt cod fried in batter; in Brazil the word also means sugar-cane spirit, and in Minas Gerais an earthworm.^[2][16][1]

Timeline

• 14th century – ysca “tinder” in a Galician Estoria.^[4][2]
• 14th century – esqueyro, the tinder pouch.^[12]
• 1562 – Cardoso's dictionary has the verb iscar.^[17]
• 1755 – Folqman renders isca by Latin esca.^[18]
• 1813 – Morais has bait, tinder and lure.^[13]
• 1871 – Vieira records pegar a toda a isca.^[14]
• 1899 – Figueiredo has the fried strip of liver and the Brazilian call to dogs.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (fishing) bait fixed on a hook to catch fish: Pôs uma minhoca como isca.^[2][19][1]
2. (figurative) A lure, anything that attracts or tempts.^[2][20][1]
3. tinder: material that catches the sparks struck from a flint; the wick of a lighter.^[2][19][1]
4. Powder or other priming put in the pan of a musket or the vent of a cannon.^[2]
5. A small portion of food; a morsel.^[2][16]
6. (cooking, Portugal, mostly in the plural) A thin slice of liver, seasoned and fried.^[2][16][1]
7. (cooking, Portugal) A strip of salt bacalhau fried in batter.^[16][1]
8. (Brazil) Sugar-cane spirit; cachaça.^[2]
9. (Minas Gerais) An earthworm.^[2]

Word family

• isqueiro
• iscar

Related words

• Latin ēsca
• Galician esca
• Spanish yesca

Usage notes

Morder a isca “to take the bait” is to fall into a trap.^[2][1]

Houaiss enters separately a Brazilian interjection isca!, used to set dogs on, as the imperative of a second verb iscar “to set on (dogs)” of doubtful origin.^[2][5][19] Nascentes reports that Amadeu Amaral took that iscar for a shortened form of buscar.^[2][5][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. isca
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. isca
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. ysca
5. ^ a b c d e f Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. isca
6. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. isca
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. esca
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. esche
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. yesca
10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. esca
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. edō
12. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. isqueiro
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 183
14. ^ 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, 1175
15. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. isca
16. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5421
17. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. iscar
18. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. isca
19. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. isca
20. ^ 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. isca