lá

lá¹ musical note

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈla/^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈla/^[1]

Forms

lá m (plural lás)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the musical note is borrowed from Italian la, recorded in Italian before 1527.^[2] Its name is the first syllable of labiī (“of the lip”), the first word of the sixth line of a medieval hymn to Saint John the Baptist.^[2][3][1] The Italian Guido d'Arezzo (died 1050) named the six notes of the scale after the first syllables of the six lines of the first stanza of this hymn (Ut queant laxis, Resonare fibris, Mira gestorum, Famuli tuorum, Solve polluti, Labii reatum), giving ut (later dó), ré, mi, fá, sol and lá.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Feijó in 1734 records lá both as an adverb of place and as the sixth voice of music, and Morais in 1813 enters it as the musical sound that follows sol in the scale.^[4][5] Besides the note, the word names the sign for it on the staff, the key or tone of A, and the note given by the tuning fork.^[2][3]

Timeline

• before 1527 – Italian la as the name of the note.^[2]
• 1502–c. 1536 – first Portuguese record, in the works of Gil Vicente (Houaiss's siglum GVic).^[2]
• 1734 – Feijó lists it as the sixth voice of music.^[4]
• 1813 – Morais defines it as the note after sol.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (music) la, A: the sixth note of the natural major scale.^[2][6][1]
2. (music) The sign that represents this note on the staff.^[2][6]
3. (music) The sixth note of a hexachord.^[2]
4. (music) The note given by the tuning fork, used to tune instruments and voices.^[3]

lá² there

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈla/^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈla/^[1]

Forms

lá (not comparable)^[1] Old spellings include la, alla, lla and alilaa, and the old form alá.^[2][7]

Etymology

The word for “there” is inherited from Latin illāc (“by that way, there”) with the preposition ad (“to”) before it, through the old form Old Galician-Portuguese alá, which lost its first syllable.^[2][7][8][1] The Lisbon Academy's dictionary derives it from the Latin adverb alone.^[3] Medieval Portuguese also had Old Galician-Portuguese alo in the same sense, from illōc (“thither”), recorded in the 13th century as well.^[7] The Latin adverb is formed from the pronoun ille (“that”), from Old Latin olle.^[9][1] The preposition is from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd (“near, at”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adverb is recorded from the 13th century.^[2][7] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have correr ya lá sen tardança “he ran there without delay” and lá mui queixosa a moça foi “the girl went there in great distress”.^[11] In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda Carolina Michaëlis read it with the sense “yonder”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa in 1611 glosses lá as “there, where you are”, with the Latin istic.^[12] Folqman in 1755 separates this use from “there, where he is” (Latin illic), and records it for remote time as well, as in “from the beginning of the world”.^[13] From place the word passed to distant time, past or future (até lá “until then”), and it became an expletive particle that adds emphasis, a warning or a negation: diz-me lá, eu lá sei.^[2][6][1]

In Rio Grande do Sul os lá de dentro are the people of the north of the state and the coast, and os lá de fora those of the frontier.^[2][14] The informal pra lá de means “more than, extremely”.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, as lá and alá;^[2][7] alo in the same sense.^[2][7]
• 1500 – the spelling llaa in a private letter.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa's dictionary glosses it with Latin istic.^[12]
• 1755 – Folqman records lá of remote time.^[13]

Meanings

Adverb

1. there: in that place, away from both the speaker and the listener; in that country, among those people.^[2][6][1]
2. To that place, thither.^[2][6]
3. At a distant time in the future or the past; then.^[2][6][1]
4. Before another adverb of place, stresses the distance: lá fora, lá longe.^[2][1]
5. An expletive particle that adds emphasis, a warning or a negation: diz-me lá “do tell me”, eu lá sei “how should I know”.^[2][16][1]