morteiro

morteiro¹ mortar (vessel)

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /moʁˈte(j).ɾu/, [mohˈte(ɪ̯).ɾu]^[1]
• São-Paulo: /moɾˈte(j).ɾu/, [moɾˈte(ɪ̯).ɾu]^[1]
• Rio-de-Janeiro: /moʁˈte(j).ɾu/, [moχˈte(ɪ̯).ɾu]^[1]
• Caipira: /moɻˈte(j).ɾu/, [moɻˈte(ɪ̯).ɾu]^[1]

Forms

morteiro m (plural morteiros)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the mortar vessel is inherited from Latin mortārium (“bowl or trough for pounding, mortar”), Houaiss says, with the influence of Italian mortaro.^[2][1] Cunha and Aurélio take it as an adaptation of the Italian word, Cunha dating it to the 16th century; but Houaiss and Viterbo have a Portuguese record of 1367.^[3][4][2][5]

The same Latin word is Galician morteiro, Spanish mortero, Catalan morter, French mortier and Italian mortaio.^[6][7]

The origin of the Latin word is not known.^[8][9] De Vaan tentatively derives it from a participle *mr̥-tó- (“crushed”), and the OLD compares a Sanskrit verb meaning “to crush” and Ancient Greek μαραίνω (maraínō, “to quench, destroy”).^[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date, 1367, is a document of Pombeiro quoted by Viterbo: senhas calaças de porco, e morteiro, e adubos pera as viandas “a calaça of pork each, and morteiro, and seasonings for the meals”.^[2][5] Viterbo explains morteiro there as the spices pounded and ground in a mortar.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word first named what was pounded in the mortar and then the vessel itself.^[3][4] The 16th- and 17th-century dictionaries give it as a synonym of gral “mortar”, Latin mortarium.^[10][11] From the 18th century the cannon became the main sense, and Morais lists the vessel only second.^[12][13] Houaiss now marks the vessel sense as old.^[2]

Timeline

• 1367 – morteiro “pounded spices” in a document of Pombeiro.^[5][2]
• 1500s – Cunha's first record of the word for the mortar.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses morteiro as gral, Latin mortarium.^[10]
• 1597 – the form mortaro.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira has morteiro, ou gral.^[11]
• 1798–1799 – Viterbo's Elucidário explains the medieval sense.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) A mortar, a vessel for pounding or grinding with a pestle; almofariz, pilão.^[2][14][15]
2. What is pounded or ground in a mortar.^[2][4]

morteiro² short cannon

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /moʁˈte(j).ɾu/, [mohˈte(ɪ̯).ɾu]^[1]
• São-Paulo: /moɾˈte(j).ɾu/, [moɾˈte(ɪ̯).ɾu]^[1]
• Rio-de-Janeiro: /moʁˈte(j).ɾu/, [moχˈte(ɪ̯).ɾu]^[1]
• Caipira: /moɻˈte(j).ɾu/, [moɻˈte(ɪ̯).ɾu]^[1]

Forms

morteiro m (plural morteiros)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the short wide-mouthed cannon is borrowed from French mortier, Houaiss, Aurélio and Nascentes say, the French name of the mortar vessel given to the gun for its shape.^{[2][4][16][17]} The French word continues mortārium.^[18][1] Vieira, the DLP and Michaelis instead derive the gun's name, with the vessel's, directly from Latin, and Nascentes reports the same split between A. Coelho, who took it from Latin, and Figueiredo, who took it from French.^{[19][14][15][17]}

Semantic evolution

The transfer from the vessel to the gun had already happened in Medieval Latin, where a letter of 1480 uses mortarium for a kind of war engine, French mortier.^[20] Bluteau describes the morteiro as an instrument of war like a short thick cannon for firing large balls, stones or bombs, and notes that Latin mortarium had meant something else.^[12] The name passed to the small iron pieces charged with powder that fire salutes at festivals, and in Brazil to cardboard firework tubes.^[2][21]

Timeline

• 1524–1585 – Houaiss's first date for the cannon.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the gun and quotes “four mortars with their bombs” from a work he cites as the Commentaries of Alentejo.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais gives the artillery piece as the first sense.^[13]
• 1844 – Cunha's date for this word.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (military) A mortar, a short cannon of wide bore that fires bombs at a high angle.^[2][1][4]
2. A small iron piece charged with pólvora (gunpowder) and fired for festive salutes.^[2][14][22]
3. (Brazil, pyrotechnics) A firework made of a reinforced cardboard tube that launches small bombs.^[2][4][21]