moeda

Forms

moeda f (plural moedas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote moeda, mõeda and moneda;^[2] Lorenzo notes that moneda in the Crónica Geral may only be a spelling of moeda.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin monēta (“coin; mint”), written Old Galician-Portuguese moeda in the oldest texts.^[3][1][4]

The same Latin word is Galician moeda, Spanish moneda, Catalan moneda, Occitan moneda, French monnaie and Italian moneta; it was borrowed as German Münze, and through Old French it gave English money.^[5][1]

The Latin word was first a title of Juno, and her temple on the Capitol housed the Roman mint, so the name passed to the minting and then to the coin.^[3][6] Ancient writers derived the title from moneō (“to warn, advise”), because the goddess had warned the Romans of an earthquake, and Wiktionary explains it as “the one who reminds”.^[3][1] The OLD marks the name as perhaps Etruscan, and Nascentes reports that 19th-century scholars such as Curtius and Walde rejected the link with the verb.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology dates the word to 1267, in a Galician charter that speaks of moeda branca do tenpo da gerra “white coin of the time of the war”; a charter of 1269 has soldos moeda d’alfonsíís “shillings in the coin of Alfonso”.^[2] Houaiss's first date, 1271, comes from Cunha's medieval index.^[3] The Cantigas de Santa Maria already speak of having coin struck (de mandar fazer mõeda).^[2]

Semantic evolution

In medieval texts moeda was the coinage of a king or lord, and Viterbo explains that the word also named the right to mint and a sum paid to the prince for it.^[2][9] From the 18th century moeda or moeda de ouro was also the name of a Portuguese gold coin worth 4,800 réis.^[10][11] The modern dictionaries add the economic sense “currency of a country” and the figurative “anything held as a value”.^[3][12]

Casa da Moeda is the state mint, and pagar na mesma moeda “to pay in the same coin” means to repay a favour or an offence in kind.^[11][13]

Timeline

• 1267 – moeda branca in a Galician charter.^[2]
• 1271 – Houaiss's first date, from Cunha's medieval index.^[3]
• 13th century, second half – mõeda in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2]
• 1513 – first record in the CTA, in the Livro dos Mártires.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it by Latin moneta.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists moeda falsa and moedeyro “minter”.^[16]
• 1871 – Vieira quotes the Ordenações Afonsinas on buying and selling gold and silver coin.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A coin: a piece of metal, usually round, struck by an authority as money: Achou uma moeda antiga no jardim.^[3][12][1]
2. The currency of a country: A moeda do Brasil é o real.^[3][1][18]
3. (economics) The means of payment of an economy taken together.^[12][18]
4. (historical) A Portuguese gold coin worth 4,800 réis.^[10][11]
5. (figurative) Anything to which moral or intellectual value is given.^[3][12]

Word family

• moedeiro

Related words

• monetário
• Latin moneta
• Galician moeda
• Spanish moneda

Usage notes

Moeda is also the name of a municipality in Minas Gerais, Brazil.^[1]

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 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. moeda
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. moeda
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. moeda
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5659
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. monnaie
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 338
9. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 143
10. ^ 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. moeda
11. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. moeda
12. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. moeda
13. ^ 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. moeda
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. moeda
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. moeda
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. moeda
17. ^ 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, 287
18. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6247