lagoa

Forms

lagoa f (plural lagoas)^[1] Medieval texts write lagua (1244) and lagoa;^[2][3] Houaiss records laguoas in the 15th century and laugoas in 1545.^[2][3] Feijó (1734) prefers lagoa to alagôa, and Wiktionary still lists alagoa as a variant.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lacūna (“pit, hollow; pool”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lagõa and Old Galician-Portuguese lagua in the oldest texts.^[1][2][5] The Latin noun is a derivative of lacus (“lake, basin”), which Wiktionary traces to Proto-Indo-European *lókus (“lake, pool”).^[6][1]

The Portuguese -o- cannot come from the long ū of the Latin word, as Leite de Vasconcelos objected, and the sources explain it in different ways.^[7] Machado, as Houaiss reports, and Nascentes and Aurélio start from a form Vulgar Latin *lacona in place of the classical one.^[3][8][9] Meyer-Lübke counts it among the forms with a change of suffix.^[10] Cornu took it as an augmentative of lago, and the DDGM's glossary of the Galician chronicle likewise explains the opened vowel by the word being felt as an augmentative of the Latin word for "lake".^[7][2] Latin charters of the region write lagona from 897 onward.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician lagoa, Mirandese lhagona, Spanish laguna and Venetian łaguna.^[10][1][11] Portuguese also has the divergent laguna.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Romance word stands inside Latin charters from the 9th century: que est circa lagona de auille (897), in lagona (922).^[2] A text of 1244 has the Galician-Portuguese e como deze a lagua de Iares "and as it goes down the pool of Iares", and the Crónica of 1344 tells of a man whose head was cut off and who was thrown em hũa lagoa.^[2] The sense is a pool or small lake.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569), Barbosa (1611) and Pereira (1697) render the word by Latin palus "marsh", and Barbosa explains how a palus differs from a lacus.^[12][13][14] Morais (1789) defines it as a large lake of running water, and Vieira adds stagnant, marshy water.^[15][16]

Houaiss gives the senses "shallow depression holding fresh or salt water", "small lake" and "stagnant pool", and dates a nautical sense, the same as lagão, to 1545.^[3] In Brazil any lake is commonly called lagoa, and in Rio Grande do Sul the name is given to the coastal lagoons, such as the Lagoa dos Patos and the Lagoa Mirim.^[9][17] In the Minho it is a large field covered with water and weed.^[5] The word is also a surname and a place name, and was borrowed into Hunsrik as Lagoh.^[18][1]

Timeline

• 897 – a Latin charter writes circa lagona de auille.^[2]
• 1244 – a lagua de Iares.^[2]
• 1344 – em hũa lagoa in the Crónica of 1344.^[2]
• c. 1430 – lagoa in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[19]
• 1545 – the spelling laugoas, and the nautical sense of lagão.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders lagoa by Latin palus.^[12]
• 1734 – Feijó prefers lagoa to alagôa.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shallow lake or pond, a small stretch of water surrounded by land.^[3][20][1]
2. A body of water cut off from the sea; a lagoon.^[21][17][1]
3. A pool of stagnant water; a marsh, charco.^[3][22]
4. (nautical) The same as lagão.^[3][9]
5. (Portugal: Minho) A large plot of land covered with water and weed.^[5][21]
6. (botany) A Brazilian plant of the genus Lagoa.^[3]

Word family

• lagoacho

Related words

• lacuna
• lago
• laguna
• Latin lacūna

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. lagoa
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lagoa
4. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lagoa
5. ^ 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. lagoa
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. lacuna
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 288
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lagoa
9. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lagoa
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4835
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. lacuna
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lagoa
13. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lagoa
14. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lagoa
15. ^ 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. 2, 4
16. ^ 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, 1250
17. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. lagoa
18. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. lagoa
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. lagoa
20. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5548
21. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. lagoa
22. ^ 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. lagoa