linhagem

Forms

linhagem f (plural linhagens)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote linnage, linhage, linage, linhaiem and liagem.^[2][3][4] The word was often masculine in the medieval and classical language.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French lignage, from ligne (“line”), which comes from Latin līnea (“linen thread, line”).^[4][3][1] Cunha compares Old Occitan linhatge, and the Crónica Geral's glossary allows either source.^[3][7] The Latin noun is the feminine of līneus (“of flax”), from līnum (“flax”).^[8][1]

The French or Occitan word was also taken into Italian lignaggio, Catalan llinatge and Spanish linaje.^[9] Portuguese linha is the native descendant of the Latin noun.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo, following Machado, gives linaien in 1188 as the first record.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria say of the Virgin that she descends de seu linnage, from the line of King David, and speak of a dona de gran linnage “a lady of high birth”; in one cantiga it means offspring.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The medieval sense, descent and noble birth, is still the main one.^[4][10] The cantigas d'amigo use it for kin or race, and the Horto do Esposo of the early 15th century has it often.^[5][11] Morais (1813) records a figurative sense “kind, sort” and the phrase fidalgo de linhagem, a nobleman by descent.^[6] Bluteau (1712–1728) explains it as the direct line of descent of a family.^[12] Later it took the senses of social class, a unilineal kin group in anthropology, and a strain of organisms in genetics.^[4][13][14]

Timeline

• 1188 – linaien, the earliest record given by Machado.^[2]
• 13th century – linnage in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3]
• 1301 – liagem.^[2]
• c. 1430 – frequent in the Horto do Esposo.^[11]
• 1561 – the modern spelling linhagem.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin genus.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. lineage, descent; a line of genealogy.^[4][13][1]
2. (figurative) Social class or condition.^[4][13]
3. (anthropology) A kin group descended from a known common ancestor.^[13][14]
4. (genetics) A uniform population of organisms bred for experiments; a strain.^[4]

Related words

• linha
• Old French lignage
• Spanish linaje

Usage notes

A separate linhagem, a coarse linen cloth used for packing, is formed from Portuguese linho + -agem;^[4][10][1] Houaiss dates it from Morais's dictionary of 1858.^[4][10][1]

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 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. linnage
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. linhagem
4. ^ 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. linhagem
5. ^ 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. linhage
6. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 228
7. ^ 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. linagẽ
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. līnea
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5061
10. ^ 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. linhagem
11. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. linhagem
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. linhagem
13. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. linhagem
14. ^ 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. linhagem
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. linhagem