mão

Forms

mão f (plural mãos)^[1] Houaiss records mão from 1255, mãão and mao in the 13th century, maaom in 1390 and maam and mãho in the 14th century.^[2] The older mano appears in a charter of 1228 and, among the cantigas, only in the cantigas d'amigo.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin manus (“hand”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mão and, in the oldest texts, also Old Galician-Portuguese mano.^{[2][5][3][4][1]} The older form still has the /n/ that the later spelling with a nasal vowel lost.^[4][3]

The same Latin word is Galician man, Spanish mano, Catalan mà, Occitan man, French main, Italian mano and Romanian mână.^[1][6]

The Latin word continues *manus, with cognates in Oscan and Umbrian.^[7] Its further origin is disputed.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *mon-u- (“hand”) and compares munt and mund “hand” and Old Irish muin (“protection”).^[7] Wiktionary also gives the proposal of Mallory and Adams, *méh₂-r̥, from a root *(s)meh₂- (“to beckon”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Charters of 1228 have both cum mias mãos propias esta carta roboro et confirmo “with my own hands I confirm this charter”, a Latin formula with the Romance noun, and de sua mano “from his hand”, of land held by someone.^[3] Houaiss dates the word to 1255.^[2] The first records already have the hand and, in legal formulas, holding and possession.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Geral uses the hand for power and authority, en sua mão “in his power” and da mão del rey “from the king's hand”, and the Miragres de Santiago for the hand holding a staff.^[3] The cantigas have phrases such as meter mão, poer a mão and coçar-se con a mão do peixe, literally “to scratch oneself with the fish's hand”, to seek a remedy that does not help.^[4]

Barbosa (1611) lists mão chea “handful”, mão de linho “a hank of flax” and mão de papel “a quire”.^[8] Nascentes explains the last by the five quires it contained, as a hand has five fingers.^[9] Houaiss's Brazilian senses include a coat of paint, the side towards which a person faces, the direction of traffic in a road, and a measure of unthreshed maize, 50 ears in Pernambuco and 25 in Alagoas.^[2][10]

The word lives on in the creoles: Kabuverdianu mo, Kristang mang, Macanese mám and Saramaccan máun.^[1]

Timeline

• 1228 – mãos and mano in charters.^[3]
• 1255 – mão, the first record according to Houaiss.^[2]
• 13th century – the spellings mãão and mao.^[2]
• 1390 – the spelling maaom.^[2]
• 1390–1437 – the Horto do Esposo is the oldest CTA text with the word.^[11]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates mão as manus.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists mão chea, mão de linho and mão de papel.^[8]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira describes the hand as carpus, metacarpus and fingers.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. hand: the end of the arm beyond the wrist, ending in the fingers.^[2][14][1]
2. The forefoot of a quadruped; the hand of a primate.^[2][14][1]
3. The foot of a slaughtered animal, as food.^[2][14]
4. A handful;^[2][15] (Brazil) a small bunch: uma mão de salsa.^[2][15]
5. A side or direction: à mão esquerda;^[2][16][1] (Brazil) the direction in which traffic must go in a street.^[2][16][1]
6. A coat of paint or whitewash.^[2][17][1]
7. (card games) A round of play; the player who leads.^[2][18][1]
8. (figurative) Help, a hand: dar uma mão.^[1]
9. Power, control: O negócio passou para as mãos do sobrinho.^[2][18]
10. A personal manner of doing something; involvement, touch.^[2]
11. (football) A handball.^[16][1]
12. (sports) A leg of a two-legged tie.^[1]
13. A quire of paper, the twentieth part of a ream.^[19][9]
14. (Brazil) A measure for unthreshed maize, of 25 to 64 ears depending on the region.^[2][10]

Word family

• contramão
• demão
• mancheia
• mão-cheia
• mãozinha

Related words

• demanda
• demandar
• mandado
• mandar
• mandato
• mandatório
• maneio
• maneira
• manejar
• maneta
• Latin manus
• Galician man
• Spanish mano

Usage notes

Houaiss has a separate feminine noun mão, an old Indian weight for solids and liquids, recorded as menas in 1327 and as mão in 1513; following Dalgado he derives it from Hindustani and Bengali man, connected with Arabic mann or with Konkani and Marathi man.^[2] The mão that is a linear measure of Goa is, according to Houaiss and Aurélio, a translation of Konkani hãt, Sanskrit hasta “hand, arm”.^[2][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mão
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. mão
4. ^ a b c d 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. mão
5. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. mão
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5339
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. manus
8. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mão
9. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. mão
10. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. mão
11. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mão
12. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mão
13. ^ 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, 117
14. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mão
15. ^ a b 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. mão
16. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. mão
17. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5935
18. ^ 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. mão
19. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. mão