joio

Forms

joio m (uncountable)^[1] Morais's 1858 edition spells it jòio and joyo.^[2] Vieira (1871–1874) heads it Joyo.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lolium (“darnel”), through a Vulgar Latin form with dissimilation of the first /l/.^[2][4][1] The intermediate form is given differently: Wiktionary has Vulgar Latin *iolium, Cunha an Iberian Vulgar Latin *liolium, and the first edition of Aurélio a chain *liolium < *jolium.^[1][5][6] A Latin glossary of the 9th century already has the form with initial /j/, and Corominas notes that the Portuguese and Spanish words point to a base *jojum, while the other Romance forms continue the glossary's form.^[7]

The same word is Galician xoio, Spanish joyo, Catalan jull, Occitan juelh and Italian loglio, with the Tuscan form gioglio.^[8][7][1] De Vaan finds no etymology for the Latin word.^[9] The OLD compares Sanskrit लोलति (lṓlati, “moves to and fro”), because the plant causes giddiness, and Wiktionary suggests an imitative root Proto-Indo-European *leh₂-, with a question mark.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record Houaiss and Lorenzo give is in the works of Sá de Miranda (1521–1558), in the image of the sower who reaps weeds: semeais e esperais trigo, / colheis joio e ervilhaca “you sow and hope for wheat, you reap darnel and vetch”.^[2][11] Cunha dates the word to the 16th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named the grass that grows among wheat, and with it anything bad growing among the good: Cunha and Houaiss record the figurative sense beside the botanical one.^[5][2] Botanists use it for the genus Lolium as a whole and in particular for Lolium temulentum, whose grain, infected by a fungus, is poisonous.^[2][12] Houaiss notes it was once used with barley to make beer.^[2] The phrase separar o joio do trigo “to separate the darnel from the wheat” is current in both Portugal and Brazil.^[13][14] In Trás-os-Montes joio is also a name of the elm.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1521–1558 – Sá de Miranda: colheis joio e ervilhaca.^[2][11]
• 1858 – Morais's sixth edition spells it jòio and joyo.^[2]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira heads the word Joyo and refers joio to it.^[3]
• 1883 – a letter from Bahia uses the word.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. darnel, an annual grass (Lolium temulentum) that grows as a weed in wheat fields and has a toxic grain; also any plant of the genus Lolium.^[2][18][1]
2. The seed of these plants.^[2][18]
3. (figurative) Something or someone harmful that appears among good things and spoils them.^[2][13]

Related words

• joeira
• joeirar
• lólio
• cizânia
• Latin lolium
• Spanish joyo

Usage notes

The fixed phrase separar o joio do trigo means to tell the bad from the good.^[13][19] Joio-venenoso is a different plant, of the pink family (Agrostemma githago).^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. joio
3. ^ 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, 1204
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. joio
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. joio
6. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 827
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 529
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5112
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. lolium
11. ^ 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. joio
12. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5487
13. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. joio
14. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. joio
15. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. joio
16. ^ 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. joio
17. ^ Carneiro, Zenaide de Oliveira Novais; Lacerda, Mariana Fagundes de Oliveira (orgs.), CE-DOHS: Corpus Eletrônico de Documentos Históricos do Sertão, Feira de Santana: UEFS, http://www5.uefs.br/cedohs, p. s.v. joio
18. ^ a b 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. joio
19. ^ 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. joio