moleiro

Forms

moleiro m (plural moleiros, feminine moleira, feminine plural moleiras)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote molneiro (13th century), molleiiro (1365) and molleyro (15th century); a form moyñeiro is also recorded in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin molinārius (“miller”), the adjective used as a noun, first written Old Galician-Portuguese molneiro.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin word was formed on molīna (“mill”), from mola (“millstone”), with the suffix -ārius.^[1][2] Wiktionary also allows a source in molārius.^[1]

Nascentes explains the form: the unstressed ⟨i⟩ of the Latin word was lost early, so that the ⟨l⟩ no longer stood between vowels and was kept, giving the 13th-century form; beside it there was a form Old Galician-Portuguese monleiro with the consonants swapped, which Viterbo found in a 12th-century text, and assimilation of either form gave Old Galician-Portuguese molleiro, later spelt with a single ⟨l⟩.^[5][4]

The same Latin word is Galician muiñeiro, Spanish molinero, Catalan moliner, French meunier and Italian mugnaio.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss gives molneiro from the 13th century and dates the word as a whole to 1365, from Cunha's medieval slips.^[2] The Miragres de Santiago speak of “the daughter of a miller called Atus” (filla de hũu moleiro que avia nome Atus).^[7]

Semantic evolution

The early dictionaries gloss the word with Latin names for a miller: polinthor in Cardoso (1569), molitor in Pereira (1697); Bluteau defines it as the man who runs a mill and doubts that molitor has any ancient authority, and Morais (1789) as the man who grinds wheat.^{[8][9][10][11]} The old Caldas Aulete adds that the miller took in the grain and returned it to its owners as flour.^[12]

The name was given to animals and plants: in Portugal to the skuas, seabirds common in autumn, to a variety of bean and to an edible mushroom that smells of flour; in Brazil to a green parrot of the Amazon, the papagaio-moleiro.^[3][2][13]

Timeline

• 1200s – the spelling molneiro.^[2]
• 1365 – molleiiro.^[2]
• 1400s – molleyro, and the form moyñeiro.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists Moleiro.^[8]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as the man who grinds wheat.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The owner of a mill; miller.^[2][14][1]
2. A man who works in a mill, grinding grain for a living.^[2][3]
3. (Portugal) A skua, a seabird of the family Stercorariidae.^[3][1]
4. (Brazil) The mealy parrot (Amazona farinosa), green with a red patch on the wing; papagaio-moleiro.^[2][14]
5. (Portugal, regional) A variety of bean.^[2][13]
6. An edible mushroom with a whitish-grey cap that smells and tastes of flour.^[3]

Related words

• moinho
• mó
• moer
• Galician muiñeiro
• Spanish molinero

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. moleiro
3. ^ a b c d e 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. moleiro
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. moleiro
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5643
7. ^ 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. moleiro
8. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. moleiro
9. ^ 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. moleiro
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. moleiro
11. ^ 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, 91
12. ^ 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. moleiro
13. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. moleiro
14. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. moleiro