máscara

Forms

máscara f (plural máscaras)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian maschera (“mask”), in its old form mascara.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Houaiss dates the Italian word to 1348–1353 in that old form, and its sense “masked person” to 1529.^[2][6]

The origin of the Italian word is disputed.^[2][7] One view connects it with Late Latin masca, which Houaiss says first meant “demon” or a mask representing one, and which is recorded in the 7th century as “witch” and at its end as “mask”.^[2] Nocentini derives the Italian word from Medieval Latin mascara (“ghost, frightening demonic being”), built on Germanic *maska, which the Edict of Rothari (643) records as “ghost, demon”, and compares Old Occitan masca (“witch”).^[8] Wiktionary also traces it to mascara.^[1] Corominas, followed by Corriente, derives it instead from an Arabic word meaning “buffoon, object of ridicule”, from a verb “to mock”, and holds that in Europe it was crossed with the dialect Italian and Occitan word for “witch”, of Germanic or Celtic origin.^{[2][9][10][11]}

The same word is Spanish máscara, Catalan màscara and Galician máscara, all taken from Italian according to Wiktionary.^[1] Corominas thinks the Spanish word came through Catalan, where it is recorded in 1391, rather than straight from Italian.^[12] Italian also gave French masque.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the first record to the 15th century, in the spelling mascara.^[2][3] The first dictionaries treat it as the equivalent of Latin persona and larva, the mask of the stage and of ghosts: Cardoso (1569) glosses Mascara as persona, and Barbosa (1611) adds larva and cousa emmascarada “a masked thing”.^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) rejects derivations from Italian maschera, French masque or Spanish mas and cara “more face”, and prefers Salmasius's link with a Greek word masca taken from Hesychius.^[15] Morais (1789) defines it as a piece shaped like a human or animal face, made of cloth, silk or paper, and records the clothes of a masked person, the phrases tirar a mascara and cair a mascara “to unmask, be unmasked”, and the use for masked people themselves (os mascaras).^[16] Morais's edition of 1813 adds the iron masks once used in war.^[17] Vieira (1871–1874) adds a tin mask put as a punishment on people who ate earth.^[18]

Modern senses include the death mask, the protective masks of fencers, welders, beekeepers and surgeons, and figuratively a false appearance.^[2][19] Priberam also gives the eyelash cosmetic.^[2][19] In north-eastern Brazil it is a leather blind put over the eyes of wild cattle.^[20] In Portugal a máscara is also one of the men masked as devils at the Christmas and St Stephen's festivities, also called a careto.^[21] The word passed into Makhuwa as maasikara and into Tetum as máskara.^[1]

Timeline

• 15th century – first records, spelt mascara.^[2][3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Mascara with Latin persona.^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds Latin larva and cousa emmascarada.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau discusses the origin of the word.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais records tirar a mascara and cair a mascara.^[16]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira defines the figurative sense “disguise, illusory appearance”.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mask: a cover for all or part of the face, worn to hide one's identity, as at carnaval or in rituals: Comprou uma máscara de pirata para o baile.^[2][7][1]
2. (theatre) A mask worn by actors to portray a character; each of the two masks that stand for tragedy and comedy.^[2][22]
3. A protective cover for the face, as used in fencing, by welders and beekeepers, or by surgeons over the nose and mouth, as in máscara de gás “gas mask”.^[2][19][1]
4. A cast of the face, especially of a dead person: a death mask.^[2][5]
5. (figurative) A false appearance, a disguise, as in deixar a máscara cair “to drop the mask, show one's true intentions”.^[2][1]
6. (figurative) The face, the set of a person's features; also ostentatious vanity, a pose.^[2]
7. mascara, a cosmetic for the eyelashes (rímel).^[19]
8. (north-eastern Brazil) A leather blindfold put on wild cattle so that they walk slowly.^[20][23]
9. (common gender) A masked person.^[19][5]

Word family

• mascarar
• mascarado
• mascarada
• mascarilha
• mascarão
• desmascarar

Related words

• Italian maschera
• Spanish máscara

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. máscara
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. máscara
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. máscara
5. ^ 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. máscara
6. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. maschera
7. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. máscara
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. maschera
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 869
10. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. máscara
11. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 383
12. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. máscara
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mascara
14. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mascara
15. ^ 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. mascara
16. ^ a b 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, 62
17. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 274
18. ^ 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. 4, 156
19. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. máscara
20. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. máscara
21. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. máscara
22. ^ 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. máscara
23. ^ 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. máscara