malva

Forms

malva f (plural malvas)^[1] Houaiss records the medieval spelling malua in 1253 and malva from the 14th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin malva (“mallow”).^[2][1][3] Nascentes 1966 takes the word to have come by the learned route, while Houaiss and Wiktionary simply derive it from the Latin plant name;^[4][2][1] Houaiss adds that the botanical genus sense is from the genus name New Latin Malva of scientific Latin.^[4][2][1]

The same Latin word is Galician malva, Spanish malva, Catalan malva, French mauve, Italian malva and Romanian nalbă.^[5][1]

De Vaan thinks the Latin word was probably taken from a Mediterranean language, perhaps Semitic, comparing Biblical Hebrew מַלּוּחַ (mallūaḥ), the name of a plant, and he points to the wavering vowels of Ancient Greek μαλάχη (malákhē, “mallow”), which also appears with other vowels.^[6] Wiktionary likewise calls it a probable substrate word related to the Hebrew and Greek names.^[1] Bluteau in the 18th century derived it from a Greek verb meaning “to soften”, after the plant's emollient virtue.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1253, in the spelling malua, from a record he takes from Machado; the spelling malva follows in the 14th century.^[2] The sense is the plant.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The old dictionaries describe a common, well-known herb: Pereira (1697) glosses it simply as a plant, Bluteau calls it a familiar herb with softening virtue and lists malva de Ungria, and Morais (1789) calls it a very common herb.^[8][7][9] The plant's use as an emollient remedy runs through all of them, and Rio Grande do Sul still uses its leaves against coughs and sore throats.^[10][11]

Popular speech gave the word the joking senses “umbrella” and “soft hat”, now out of use, and the phrases ir para as malvas “to die” and ser filho das malvas “to be of humble or unknown birth”.^[10][12][13] The name of the flower's colour, a pinkish violet, is a modern sense, used as a noun and as an invariable adjective.^[2][14] In Brazil the name passed to many native plants of the mallow family, mostly as compounds such as malva-branca and malva-lava-prato.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1253 – earliest record, spelt malua, in Houaiss after Machado.^[2]
• 1300s – the spelling malva.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro glosses Malva as a plant.^[8]
• 1716 – Bluteau describes it as a well-known herb and lists malva de Ungria.^[7]
• 1789 – Morais calls it a very common herb.^[9]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records ir para as malvas “to die”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. mallow: any plant of the genus Malva of the mallow family, grown as ornamentals, for food or as medicine.^[2][14][1]
2. The common mallow (Malva sylvestris), whose mucilaginous leaves are used against coughs and as an emollient.^[2][10]
3. Any of various other plants of the mallow family, many of them native to Brazil.^[2][15]
4. (masculine) Mauve, the pinkish violet colour of the mallow flower.^[2][14]

Adjective

1. (invariable) Of a mauve colour: uma blusa malva.^[2][10]

Related words

• Latin malva

Usage notes

Several fixed phrases speak of death and burial: ir para as malvas “to die”, estar nas malvas “to be dead and buried”, and mandar às malvas “to send packing, get rid of”.^[17][18] Ser filho das malvas means to be of very humble or unknown birth.^[17][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. malva
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 312
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. malva
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5274
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. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. malva
8. ^ 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. malva
9. ^ 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, 47
10. ^ a b c d 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. malva
11. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. malva
12. ^ a b 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. malva
13. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. malva
14. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. malva
15. ^ 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. malva
16. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. malva
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. malva
18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5884