loja

Forms

loja f (plural lojas)^[1] Houaiss records loia in 1338, loya in the 14th century, lógea in the 15th, logeas in 1507 and loja from 1716.^[2][3] The spelling logea was still written in 1741.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French loge, which was recorded from 1135 as “shelter of branches and leaves”, then as “gallery, stand” and “kennel”.^[2][3][5] Wiktionary instead treats it as inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese logea (“storehouse”), which it in turn derives from the Old French word.^[1] The French word, modern French loge, comes from the Frankish *laubja, whose base is already found in the Medieval Latin laubia, lobia and lobium.^[2][6][7] The Frankish word is reconstructed from Old High German louba (“canopy”) (German Laube (“arbour”)), and may come from a Germanic word for “leaf” or, as Kluge thought, from Old Norse lopt (“air; upper room”).^[7]

The Masonic sense came through the English lodge, and the architectural sense of a loggia through the Italian loggia, which is from the same Frankish word.^[2][3][5] From French the word also passed into Spanish lonja, Catalan llotja and Old Occitan lotja.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to 1338, spelt loia; its oldest senses, now obsolete, are the ground floor of a building and the entrance hall through which carriages came in.^[2] Cunha gives as the first sense a ground-floor house or storey used for trade or crafts, and a lodging.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712) defines loja as the workshop where any goods are sold, with loja de livreiro, loja de sapateiro and loja de barbeiro.^[9] Morais (1789) adds the ground-floor house and, in a noble house, the covered courtyard at the entrance where the lackeys waited and the carriages came in.^[10][11] Vieira (1871) also gives “coach-house”.^[10][11] The Masonic sense is recorded from the 18th century by Houaiss.^[2] Cunha dates it to 1881.^[3] In rural Portugal the ground floor was where the animals were kept, and in Trás-os-Montes loja means a pigsty.^[12][13] The word passed into Tetum and Makalero of Timor as loja.^[1]

Timeline

• 1135 – Old French loge “shelter of branches”.^[2]
• 1338 – first Portuguese record, spelt loia.^[2]
• 15th century – the spelling lógea.^[2][3]
• 1507 – the plural logeas.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as a shop.^[9]
• 1716 – first record of the spelling loja.^[2]
• 18th century – loja maçônica, the Masonic lodge.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais adds the covered courtyard of a noble house.^[10]
• 1858 – first record of lojista “shopkeeper”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shop, a store: Abriram uma loja de brinquedos na praça.^[2][6][1]
2. The ground floor of a building, used as a workshop or storeroom, or in the country for keeping animals.^[2][12][1]
3. (regional, Trás-os-Montes) A pigsty.^[12][13]
4. (obsolete) The ground floor of a building; the entrance court where carriages came in.^[2][14]
5. (Freemasonry) A lodge: the meeting place of freemasons, or a group of them meeting under a master.^[2][1]
6. (botany) Each cavity of an anther or an ovary, a lóculo.^[2][15]

Word family

• lojista
• lojão
• loja-âncora
• alojar
• alojamento
• desalojar

Related words

• French loge
• Italian loggia
• English lodge

Usage notes

Brazil has loja de conveniência, a shop open all day and night, often at a petrol station, and loja de departamentos “department store”; in Portugal loja de capela is a haberdasher's.^[2][6]

Aurélio treats the botanical loja as a separate word, possibly an alteration of a *locula after lóculo, influenced by French loge.^[6][2][15] Houaiss and Michaelis list it as a sense of this word.^[6][2][15]

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 i j k l m n o p q r s t Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. loja
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. loja
4. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. loja
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. loja
6. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. loja
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. loge
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4936
9. ^ 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. loja
10. ^ a b c 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, 11
11. ^ 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, 1333
12. ^ 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. loja
13. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. loja
14. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. loja
15. ^ a b c 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. loja