nora

nora¹ daughter-in-law

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈnɔ.ɾɐ/^[3]
• Portugal: /ˈnɔ.ɾɐ/^[3]

Forms

nora f (plural noras)^[3]

Etymology

The word for the daughter-in-law is inherited from Vulgar Latin *nŏra, written Old Galician-Portuguese nora in the oldest texts, which replaced Latin nurus.^[2][3][4] Houaiss starts from a Vulgar Latin *nura instead, the form of the Appendix Probi, moved to the first declension so that it looked more clearly feminine.^[1][5] Lorenzo objects that Portuguese has an open /ɔ/ and that the Spanish word has a diphthong, which points to Latin ⟨ŏ⟩, not ⟨ŭ⟩.^[6]

The open vowel is explained by the influence of socrus (“mother-in-law”), of soror (“sister”) or of novia (“bride”).^[4][6] The same Vulgar Latin form is Galician nora, Catalan nora, Italian nuora and Spanish nuera.^[4][7]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *snusós (“daughter-in-law”), and is related to Ancient Greek νυός (nuós) and Sanskrit स्नुषा (snuṣā́).^[8][3] De Vaan explains its change to a u-stem by the influence of the word for mother-in-law.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters of the north-west write the Romance word long before the vernacular texts: nore mee “to my daughter-in-law” in 817 and et nora mea Onega “and my daughter-in-law Onega” in 1103.^[6] Cunha dates the Portuguese word to the 13th century, and the Crónica Troiana says that Helen, although she was Hecuba's nora, was much loved by her.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense has not changed since the Middle Ages: the wife of one's son, in relation to his father and mother.^[1][2] The 16th- and 17th-century dictionaries render it with Latin nurus.^[9][10] In Trás-os-Montes the diminutive norinha is a name of the weasel.^[4][7]

Timeline

• 817 – nore mee in a Latin charter.^[6]
• 1103 – et nora mea Onega in a Latin charter.^[6]
• 13th century – first record of the Portuguese word.^[2]
• 14th century – sua nora in the Crónica Troiana.^[6][1]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders it nurus.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. daughter-in-law, the wife of someone's son: A nora visita a sogra todos os domingos.^[1][11][3]

nora² noria, waterwheel

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈnɔ.ɾɐ/^[3]
• Portugal: /ˈnɔ.ɾɐ/^[3]

Forms

nora f (plural noras)^[3]

Etymology

The word for the waterwheel is borrowed from Arabic نَاعُورَة (nāʿūra), through the Andalusian form that Corriente writes náʕura.^{[12][13][1][3]} Wiktionary traces the Arabic word further to Classical Syriac ܢܥܘܪܬܐ (nāʿōrtāʾ, “water wheel”), and Corominas to the Arabic verb for “to growl”, after the groaning of the wheel.^[3][14] Nascentes derives it from the Arabic form with the article, through an intermediate form that lost its first syllable.^[15]

The same Arabic word is Galician nora, Catalan nora and Spanish noria; in Spanish the ⟨-i-⟩ comes from aceña and acequia, and the older forms were Old Spanish annora and ñora.^[13][14][16] Corriente also records a dialectal Portuguese nória.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha dates the word to the 16th century and Houaiss to 1662, both for the machine that lifts water from a well.^[2][1] Bluteau describes it as a wheel with ropes and buckets turned in a circle by a draught animal, and cites a treatise that teaches how to build noras that move without animals.^[17]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) describes the nora in detail: a wheel turning over the mouth of a well, with two ropes carrying the buckets that empty into a trough, moved through a gear by an ox.^[18] In the Algarve the word also names the well itself from which water is drawn by such a machine.^[19][20] The old Caldas Aulete records meter alguém à nora “to keep someone busy, captive or in love”, after the animal that turns the wheel all day.^[21]

Timeline

• 16th century – first record.^[2]
• 1662 – Houaiss's first dated record.^[1]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the machine.^[17]
• 1789 – Morais enters the waterwheel first and the daughter-in-law second under one heading.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A noria, a machine for raising water from a well or cistern, made of a wheel with a rope or chain carrying buckets (alcatruz).^[1][11][3]
2. (Portugal, Algarve) A well from which water is drawn by such a machine.^[19][20]