madeira

Forms

madeira f (plural madeiras)^[1] Medieval texts write both madeira and madeyra.^[2][3] The spelling madeyra is still in the Livro dos Mártires of 1513.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin materia (“stuff, material; timber”), written Old Galician-Portuguese madeira and Old Galician-Portuguese madeyra in the oldest texts.^[3][5][1] Its learned doublet, a later borrowing of the same Latin word, is listed under Related words.^[3][1] Nascentes notes that the Latin word meant what a thing is made of, and then the shoot or trunk of a tree and timber for building;^[6][7] Portuguese kept the specialised sense.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Galician madeira and Spanish madera, first recorded in Spanish in 1220–1250.^[8][1][9]

The Latin noun is formed from māter (“mother”) with the suffix -ia, the mother being taken as the source.^[10][1] Cunha glosses the Latin word for mother here as “trunk of the tree”, the part that bears the branches.^[5] Wiktionary takes it back to *méh₂tēr (“mother”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Romance form appears inside Latin charters from the 12th century: a Latin text of 1111 taxes madeira et ligna “timber and firewood”, and others of 1162–1185 tax madeira que uenerit per flumen “timber that comes down the river”.^[2] Houaiss dates the first Portuguese record to 1269, and a document of the same year has et cum lenas et cum madeyras.^[3][2] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria builders bring madeira, pedra e cal e arẽa “timber, stone, lime and sand”, and there is ũa ponte de madeira “a wooden bridge”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word meant timber for building and for fire, the sense the notarial books of Noia and Rianjo have.^[11][2] In the satirical cantigas of Afonso X and Afonso Lopez de Baian it is also a figure for the male member.^[11][12]

Bluteau explains that boards, planks and beams are called madeira because they are the material of carpentry, “as if one said materia”.^[13] Morais records madeira do ar, timber good for roof-beams but not for posts set in the ground, and madeira torta for the horns of an ox.^[14] The plural madeiras became the woodwind instruments of an orchestra.^[3][15]

In Brazil the word also means a tree, and in the north the forest and, among the rubber tappers, the rubber tree; in Rio it is slang for a stick or club, and elsewhere a guitar.^[3][16][17]

The island of Madeira is named after the word: the Lusíadas speak of a grande Ilha da Madeira, / Que do muito arvoredo assim se chama “the great island of Madeira, so called from its many trees”.^[18][1] From the island comes the masculine noun madeira, the fortified wine, a shortening of vinho da Madeira.^[1][3][17]

Timeline

• 1111 – a Latin charter taxes madeira et ligna.^[2]
• 1234–1236 – petra et madeyra “stone and timber” in a Galician document.^[2]
• 1269 – Houaiss's first date for the Portuguese word.^[3]
• 13th century, second half – ũa ponte de madeira in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[11]
• 13th century – first record of the derivative madeiro;^[5] madeirado follows in the 15th century.^[5]
• 1513 – the Livro dos Mártires writes madeyra.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders madeira by Latin materia.^[19]
• 1712 – Bluteau links the word to materia.^[13]
• 1813 – Morais records madeira do ar; first record of madeiramento.^[14][5]
• 1899 – first record of madeireiro.^[5]
• 1942 – Houaiss's first date for madeira compensada “plywood” in Brazil.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. wood, the hard tissue under the bark of the trunk, branches and roots of trees and shrubs.^[3][17][1]
2. Wood cut and dried for use, timber, lumber: uma mesa de madeira.^[3][20][1]
3. The wood of a particular kind of tree;^[3][1] madeira de lei, hard, durable wood for building.^[3][1]
4. (Brazil, informal) A tree.^[3][17]
5. (northern Brazil) Among rubber tappers, the rubber tree; also the forest.^[3][17]
6. (Brazil) A violão, a guitar.^[3]
7. (Rio de Janeiro, informal) A stick, staff or club.^[3][16]
8. (music, in the plural) The woodwind instruments of an orchestra.^[3][15][1]
9. (masculine) Madeira, the fortified wine of the island of Madeira.^[3][20][1]

Interjection

1. madeira! “timber!”, the warning cry of woodcutters when a tree is about to fall.^[1][21]

Word family

• madeirame
• madeiramento
• madeirar
• madeirado
• madeireiro
• madeireira
• Madeira

Related words

• madeiro
• mãe
• matéria
• material
• Latin materia
• Spanish madera

Usage notes

The wine is a masculine noun (um madeira), while the material is feminine.^[17][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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. madeyra
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. madeira
4. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. madeyra
5. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. madeira
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. madeira
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 309
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. madera
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. materies
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. māteria
11. ^ a b c d 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. madeira
12. ^ 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. madeira
13. ^ 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. madeira
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 245
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. madeira
16. ^ 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. madeira
17. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. madeira
18. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. madeira
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. madeira
20. ^ 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. madeira
21. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. madeira