lençol

Forms

lençol m (plural lençóis)^[1] Cunha records lançol beside lençol from the 16th century, and Houaiss the 15th-century plurals leçõoes and leçoões.^[2][3] Pereira (1697) refers lençol to lançol, and Bluteau (1712) heads the word lançol.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin linteolum (“small piece of linen cloth”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lençoo in the medieval language.^[3][6][1] Cunha and the DLP start from a popular Latin form with ⟨e⟩ in the first syllable, *lenteolum.^[2][7]

The same Latin word is Galician lenzó, Spanish lenzuelo, Catalan llençol, Occitan lençòl, French linceul and Italian lenzuolo.^[1][8][9] The Latin noun is a diminutive of linteum (“linen cloth”), itself from linteus (“of linen”), and the DHLF traces the family to līnum (“flax”).^[1][10][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters of Galicia already list the cloth with a Romance-looking spelling: et cum duobus lenceolis “and with two sheets” in 1154, uno lenciolo et sauana “a sheet and a blanket” in 1204.^[11] Houaiss dates the Portuguese word to 1312, the year Lorenzo takes from Machado.^[3][11][2] Cunha puts it in the 14th century.^[3][11][2]

Semantic evolution

In Medieval Latin the word already meant a shroud as well as a bed sheet, an altar cloth and linen in general.^[12][9] Portuguese kept the bed sheet as the main sense; the shroud is now old or popular.^[3][13][14]

From the comparison with a sheet spread out came the senses of a wide, smooth expanse: Bluteau records lançoes de area in the pilots' books for a stretch of sand, and Vieira lençoes de areia.^[5][15] Geology and hydrology use it for a body of water or oil in or on the ground, as in lençol freático “water table”.^[3][14] Brazilian football calls lençol a move in which the player lifts the ball over an opponent and collects it behind him; in informal European Portuguese a lençol is a high-value banknote; and the plural lençóis names the coastal dunes between the gulf of Maranhão and the mouth of the Parnaíba.^[3][1]

In Portuguese India, Dalgado records lençol for the cloth or mantle worn to church and on solemn occasions, called lençol de manto to tell it from the bed sheet.^[16]

Timeline

• 1154 – a Latin charter lists duobus lenceolis “two sheets”.^[11]
• 1204 – uno lenciolo in another Latin charter.^[11]
• 1312 – first record of the Portuguese word.^[3][11]
• 15th century – the plurals leçõoes and leçoões.^[3]
• 1513 – lançol in the Livro dos Mártires.^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders lençol by Latin syndon.^[18]
• 1697 – Pereira refers lençol to lançol.^[4]
• 1712 – Bluteau heads the word lançol and derives it from French linceul.^[5]
• 1871 – Vieira has the figurative lençoes de areia.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bed sheet: each of the two pieces of cloth put on a bed, one over the mattress and one to cover the sleeper: Mudou os lençóis da cama.^[3][19][1]
2. (old or popular) A shroud, a winding sheet.^[3][14][1]
3. A wide, smooth expanse compared to a sheet: um lençol de neve.^[3][20]
4. (geology, hydrology) A large body of water or other fluid on or under the ground: lençol freático, lençol de petróleo.^[3][14][1]
5. (Portugal, informal) A high-value banknote; money.^[3][14]
6. (Brazil, football) A move in which a player lobs the ball over an opponent and recovers it beyond him.^[3][1]
7. (in the plural) The chain of coastal dunes from the gulf of Maranhão to the mouth of the Parnaíba.^[3][1]

Related words

• lenço
• linho
• Latin linteolum
• Galician lenzó
• Spanish lenzuelo

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 Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lençol
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lençol
4. ^ a b 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. lençol
5. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lançol
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lençol
7. ^ 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. lençol
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. linteolum
9. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. linceul
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. linteolum
11. ^ a b c d e f 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. lençol
12. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. linteolum
13. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. lençol
14. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5635
15. ^ 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, 1259
16. ^ Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 1, 521
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. lançol
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lençol
19. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lençol
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. lençol