montanha

Forms

montanha f (plural montanhas)^[1] Houaiss records montanna in the 13th century and montanha and mõtanhas in the 14th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *montanea (“mountain region”), written Old Galician-Portuguese montanna in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4] Houaiss explains the Late Latin noun as the feminine of an adjective montaneus, used instead of classical Latin montānus (“of the mountains”).^[2] Wiktionary starts from montānia, a collective noun formed on the stem of mons (“mountain”) and recorded in the 8th-century Reichenau Glossary.^[1]

The same word is Galician montaña, Spanish montaña, Catalan muntanya, Occitan montanha, French montagne and Italian montagna.^[5][1] Older scholars derived it straight from monte within Portuguese, as Adolfo Coelho did, or, like Vieira, from French.^[6][7]

The Latin noun goes back to *monti-, from *mon-ti- (“protrusion, height”), and is related to Welsh mynydd (“mountain”).^[8] Wiktionary connects it with the root *men- (“to stand out, tower”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria a place lies en cima dũa gran pena, ben en cabo da montanna “on top of a great crag, at the very end of the mountain”;^[4] Mettmann's glossary notes that in some passages the word may mean “forest”.^[4] A satirical cantiga of Alfonso X uses it figuratively for the mons Veneris.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The early dictionaries show the sense of wooded upland: Cardoso in 1569 renders Montanha by Latin silva “forest”, and Pereira in 1697 by silva and montana.^[11][12] Bluteau equates it with monte and quotes Camões's first eclogue, Com gritos, que a montanha entristecerão.^[13] Morais in 1813 defines it simply as a great mountain, and Vieira as a chain of mountains.^[14][7]

The figurative sense “huge heap, great quantity” was in the dictionaries by the 19th century.^[15][2] Montanha-russa “Russian mountain” is the roller coaster, and montanha de gelo an iceberg.^[16] Kabuverdianu and Guinea-Bissau Creole have montanha.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – montanna in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][2]
• 14th century – the spellings montanha and mõtanhas.^[2]
• 1431–1446 – first record in the CTA, in the Dez Mandamentos da Ley de Moisés.^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders Montanha by Latin silva.^[11]
• 1697 – Pereira gives silva and montana.^[12]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau quotes Camões.^[13]
• 1813 – Morais: “a great mountain”.^[14]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira derives the word from French.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mountain, a very high elevation of land with a broad base: Subimos a montanha a pé.^[2][18][1]
2. A mountain range, a chain of mountains; in the plural, the mountains as a region: Passam o verão na montanha.^[2][18]
3. (figurative) A great heap of something: uma montanha de roupa por lavar.^[2][19]
4. (figurative) A great quantity of people or things.^[2][20]

Word family

• montanhês
• montanhoso
• montanhista
• montanha-russa

Related words

• monte
• montão
• Latin mons
• Spanish montaña

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. montanha
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. montanha
4. ^ 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. montanna
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5666
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. montanha
7. ^ a b c 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, 307
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. montanha
10. ^ 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. montanha
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. montanha
12. ^ 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. montanha
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. montanha
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 315
15. ^ 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. montanha
16. ^ 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. montanha
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. montanha
18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. montanha
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. montanha
20. ^ 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. montanha