lume

Forms

lume m (plural lumes)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote lume and lum in the 13th century and also llume in the 14th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lūmen (“light; lamp; fire”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lume in the oldest texts.^[2][1][3] Houaiss notes that the Portuguese form could continue the nominative, as a learned form, or the accusative, through *lumine and *lumne.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician lume, Spanish lumbre, Catalan llum, Occitan lum, Italian lume and Romanian lume, which in Romanian means “world”.^[4][1] The Spanish word is first found as lumne, in a name, in 1065.^[5]

The Latin noun belongs with lūx (“light”) and lūceō (“to shine”).^[2][6] It goes back to *louksmən, from *léwk-s-mn̥, a derivative of the root *lewk- (“bright”).^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it for a great light seen in the sky (viron mui gran lume “they saw a very great light”) and call the Virgin lum' e luz “light and brightness” of the saints.^[8] In the love songs of the troubadours lume is mostly figurative, in addresses to the lady such as lume destes olhos meus “light of these eyes of mine”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word meant light as well as fire, and it could also mean sight, a sense Houaiss records from the 13th century and now marks obsolete.^[2][8][10] From the 16th century the dictionaries give it chiefly as “fire”: Cardoso glosses it with Latin lumen and ignis, Pereira with ignis first, and Bluteau has acender o lume and pôr a carne ao lume.^[11][12][13] Folqman records lume da agua for the surface of the water.^[14]

Figurative senses grew from that of light: brilliance of intelligence, knowledge, inspiration, and a person of great talent.^[2][15] In Portugal it also names what burns for domestic use, the lit end of a cigarette and a match or lighter.^[2] The idioms dar a lume “to publish” and vir a lume “to come out, become known” come from the sense of light.^[2] The anatomical sense, the cavity of a vessel or cell, is a modern use.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1200s – first records, spelt lume and lum.^[2]
• 1300s – the spelling llume.^[2]
• 1416 – the earliest dated prose witness in the CTA, the Vida de Santo Aleixo.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses lume with Latin lumen and ignis.^[11]
• 1611 – Barbosa explains lume as “brightness”.^[17]
• 1697 – Pereira defines lume as fire.^[12]
• 1755 – Folqman lists lume “fire” and lume da agua “surface of the water”.^[14]
• 1813 – Morais adds the transferred lume da razão “the light of reason”.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. fire; the heat and light of something burning, especially a fire for cooking or warmth: Aquece a sopa ao lume.^[2][1][19]
2. light, glow, brightness: o lume da lua.^[2][15]
3. A source of light, such as a candle, lamp or torch.^[2][20]
4. (figurative) Brilliance of mind; insight, knowledge; inspiration.^[2][15]
5. (figurative) A person who stands out by learning or talent.^[2][21]
6. (Portugal) The burning tip of a cigarette, cigar or pipe;^[2] (informal) a match or lighter to light one.^[2]
7. (anatomy) The lumen, the inner space of a vessel or cell.^[2][1][20]
8. (veterinary) The front part of a horse's hoof or of a horseshoe.^[2][22]

Related words

• luz
• lúmen
• Latin lūmen
• Galician lume
• Spanish lumbre

Usage notes

Common idioms are dar a lume or trazer a lume “to publish, make known” and vir a lume “to be published, come to light”.^[2][23] Houaiss also records ter lume no olho “to be sharp, not easily fooled”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 u v w Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lume
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lume
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5161
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 712
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c 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. lume
9. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. lume
10. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. lume
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lume
12. ^ 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. lume
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lume
14. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lume
15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lume
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. lume
17. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lume
18. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 239
19. ^ 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. lume
20. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5784
21. ^ 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. lume
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. lume
23. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. lume