lenhoso

Forms

lenhoso (feminine lenhosa, masculine plural lenhosos, feminine plural lenhosas, metaphonic)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese lenho (“wood, log”) + -oso, according to Houaiss and Wiktionary, which compares Spanish leñoso.^[2][1] Most other dictionaries derive it directly from Latin lignōsus (“woody”), an adjective of Pliny's for roots, stems and fruit: so Nascentes, Aurélio, the DLP, Porto Editora and Michaelis;^{[3][4][5][6][7][1][8]} Wiktionary allows that it may correspond to the Latin word.^{[3][4][5][6][7][1][8]} The REW lists the Portuguese word among the Romance continuations of the Latin adjective, with Romanian lemnos, Italian legnoso, Catalan llenyós and the Spanish form.^[9]

The base noun, spelt Old Galician-Portuguese lenno in the 13th century, continues lignum (“wood, firewood”), from which the Latin adjective was formed with the suffix -ōsus.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date, 1716, refers to Bluteau's dictionary, which says the word of plants with many branches and gives raiz lenhosa “woody root” with the Latin lignosa radix of Pliny.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1813) defines the word as hard and of the nature of formed wood, the part of a tree or shrub that has turned to wood;^[12][13] Cunha dates the word from this dictionary.^[12][13] Vieira repeats the definition and gives the Latin source.^[14] Silva Bastos (1912) also records it as a noun, “the organic principle of plants”.^[15]

In modern botany the adjective describes tissue whose cell walls are thickened with lignin and plants made mostly of such tissue, as opposed to herbaceous ones; ecology uses it of vegetation in which such plants dominate.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1716 – Bluteau's dictionary has lenhoso and raiz lenhosa.^[2][11]
• 1813 – Morais's dictionary defines it as hard and of the nature of wood.^[12][13]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira gives the Latin lignosus as its source.^[14]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records a noun lenhoso “organic principle of plants”.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. woody, ligneous: having the look or texture of wood: Os caules desta planta tornam-se lenhosos com a idade.^[2][4][1]
2. Of or relating to the lenho (the wood or xylem of a plant).^[2][4]
3. (botany) Having cell walls thickened and hardened by lignin (of a tissue or vessel); made mostly of such tissue (of a plant), as opposed to herbáceo.^[2][7]
4. (ecology) Dominated by woody plants (of vegetation).^[2]

Noun

1. (botany, dated) The woody matter of plants.^[7][15]

Related words

• lenho
• lenha
• lígneo
• Latin lignōsus
• Spanish leñoso

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lenhoso
3. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lenhoso
4. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lenhoso
5. ^ 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. lenhoso
6. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5637
7. ^ a b c d e 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. lenhoso
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. lignōsus
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5033
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lenho
11. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lenhoso
12. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 214
13. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lenhoso
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, 1287
15. ^ a b c Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. lenhoso