nervo

Forms

nervo m (plural nervos)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote nervo and nervio in the 13th century, neruos and nervios in the 14th, and the Crónica Troiana has nerueos.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nervus (“sinew, tendon; nerve”), written Old Galician-Portuguese nervo and Old Galician-Portuguese nervio in the 13th century.^[2][4][1] This variant points to Vulgar Latin *nervium, the source of Spanish nervio.^[5][6] The 1975 Aurélio derives the Portuguese word from it too, modelled on the plural nervia (“sinews”).^[7]

The same Latin word is Galician nervio, Catalan nervi, French nerf, Italian nerbo and Romanian nerv.^[8][1]

De Vaan explains the Latin word from an older form with the ⟨u⟩ before the ⟨r⟩, by a metathesis also seen in parvus, and traces it to *(s)nēuros, a thematic form of *snéh₁wr̥ (“sinew”).^[9][1] It is thus cognate with νεῦρον (neûron, “sinew, string, nerve”) and with sinu (“sinew”).^[9][1] The Greek word is the source of the learned prefix neuro-.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the word means “tendon, sinew”: a healed man's crippled limb is described quando ss' estendia o nervio encoleito “when the shrunken sinew stretched out”, and another cantiga lists coiros nen nervos nen vẽas “skins nor sinews nor veins”.^[3] Cunha's first record is also from the 13th century, with the senses “tendon, ligament, energy”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word named the sinews and tendons of the body: the 14th-century Crónica Troiana speaks of cordas et nerueos and of armour “made of raw hides and glued sinews”.^[3] Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 already has the figurative nervoso for a forceful speaker.^[10] Bluteau gave a long anatomical account of the nerves as white fibrous cords growing from the brain and the spinal marrow,^[11] and Morais (1789) defined them as the organs of sensation and added the figurative sense “strength”, quoting o dinheiro he nervo do poder “money is the sinew of power”.^[12]

The old sense “tendon” lived on in popular speech, as Silva Bastos and later dictionaries note.^[13][14] In the plural the word came to stand for a person's emotional state and endurance (os nervos), and figuratively for energy and the essential part of anything; technical uses followed for the rib of a vault and the cords across the spine of a book.^[2][15] Derivatives are recorded from the 19th century: nervura and nervosidade in 1844, nervosismo in the 19th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 13th century – nervio and nervos “sinews” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2]
• 14th century – neruos and nerueos in the Crónica Troiana.^[3]
• 1542 – a private letter has nervos.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives nervo with the Latin nervus and the derivative nervuda cousa “sinewy thing”.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the nerves anatomically.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais defines the nerves as the organs of sensation and records the figurative sense “strength”.^[12]
• 1844 – first records of nervura and nervosidade.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) A nerve: a whitish cord of fibres that carries impulses between the brain or spinal cord and the other parts of the body.^[2][15][1]
2. (usually in the plural) The capacity to withstand stress and emotional strain; one's nerves: Os nervos dela não aguentaram a espera.^[2][17]
3. (figurative) Firmness of attitude; energy, vigour.^[2][15]
4. (figurative) Physical strength, robustness.^[2][14]
5. (figurative) The central or essential part of something; its core.^[2][15]
6. (popular) A tendon or ligament; sinew in meat.^[14][18]
7. (vulgar) The penis.^[2]
8. (architecture) A rib of a vault, a nervura.^[2]
9. (bookbinding) A cord or band sewn across the spine of a book, and the ridge it makes.^[2][18]

Word family

• nervoso
• nervosismo
• nervosidade
• nervura
• nervudo
• nérvulo
• enervar
• enervante

Related words

• Latin nervus
• Galician nervio

Usage notes

In the dialect of Aveloso, in Portugal, nervo has been recorded for the marrow of a bone.^[19]

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 h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. nervo
3. ^ a b c d e 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. nervio
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. nervo
5. ^ 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. nervio
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nervio
7. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 994
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5898
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. nervo
11. ^ 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. nervo
12. ^ 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, 114
13. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. nervo
14. ^ a b c 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. nervo
15. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. nervo
16. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. nervo
17. ^ 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. nervo
18. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6489
19. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. nervo