nêspera

Forms

nêspera f (plural nêsperas)^[1] Houaiss records the plural nesperas in the 15th century, and Cunha the variant nespora in the 16th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *nespira (“medlar”).^[2][3][4] Houaiss explains this form as an alteration of the classical Latin nespila, itself a dissimilated form of mespilum (“medlar”) that changed declension.^[2] Cunha takes the Vulgar Latin noun as the feminine of *nespilum.^[3] Nascentes puts the change of the initial /m/ to /n/ down to dissimilation from the following /p/, and the change of /l/ to /r/ to popular association with pirum (“pear”).^[5] Wiktionary simply derives the word from the Latin form in m-.^[1]

The same Vulgar Latin type is Spanish níspero, and the classical one survives, with the same initial /n/, in Italian nespola and French nèfle.^[6][7][8]

The Latin word was taken from Ancient Greek μέσπιλον (méspilon, “medlar”).^[9][1] Beekes calls this a foreign word of unknown origin, probably Pre-Greek because of its suffix -ιλ-.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha's addenda move the first record of nêspera to a 15th-century text, and Houaiss also dates the first record, the plural nesperas, to the 15th century, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[3][2] The sense there is the fruit of the medlar tree; the tree name nespereira is recorded earlier, as nespereiira in 1365.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word named the fruit of the medlar, and today it usually names that of the loquat, Eriobotrya japonica, a tree from China.^[1][12][11] Wiktionary gives both fruits as senses and marks the medlar tree as an archaic sense of nespereira.^[1]

Feijó's spelling book of 1734 has the word simply as “a fruit”.^[13] The tree name nespereira is in Morais's dictionary of 1813.^[3] Popular senses developed in Portugal: the original Caldas Aulete and the DLP record nêspera for the buttocks, and the Porto Editora dictionary for drunkenness.^[14][4][15] In São Tomé the DLP records the word for a timber tree of another family that yields a gum.^[4] In the Azores Houaiss records the synonym mônica.^[2]

Timeline

• 959 – Houaiss's earliest form of the tree name, esperaria, taken from Machado.^[11]
• 1365 – nespereiira, the tree.^[11]
• 15th century – first record of the fruit name, in the plural nesperas.^[2][3]
• 16th century – Cunha's date for nêspera and nespora.^[3]
• 1734 – Feijó lists nêspera as a fruit.^[13]
• 1813 – nespereira in Morais's dictionary.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fruit of the nespereira, the loquat: a round, fleshy yellow or orange fruit with several stones.^[2][4][1]
2. (archaic) The fruit of the medlar, Mespilus germanica.^[1]
3. (Portugal, popular) The buttocks.^[4][14]
4. (Portugal) drunkenness.^[15]
5. (São Tomé) A tree that gives good timber and a gummy substance.^[4]

Word family

• nespereira

Related words

• Latin mespilum
• Spanish níspero

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. nêspera
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. nêspera
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. nêspera
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. nêspera
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. níspero
7. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. níspero
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. nèfle
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. mespilum
10. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. μέσπιλον
11. ^ a b c d Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. nespereira
12. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. nêspera
13. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. nêspera
14. ^ a b 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. nêspera
15. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6491