ombro

Forms

ombro m (plural ombros)^[1] Medieval texts write ombros, onbros, honbros and oonbro.^[2][3] Cardoso (1569) heads the word Ombro, but Barbosa (1611), Bluteau and Morais (1789) write it with h-, hombro, and Morais refers ombro to that spelling.^[4][5][6][7]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin umerus (“shoulder”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ombro and Old Galician-Portuguese onbro in the oldest texts.^[2][3][8][1] Nascentes explains the form by the loss of the unstressed /e/ and the growth of a /b/ after the /m/.^[9] Houaiss notes that the Latin word was sometimes wrongly spelt with an initial h, and that it could also mean the upper arm.^[2] The learned úmero “humerus” is a doublet.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician ombro, Spanish hombro and Romanian umăr.^[1][10] Corominas notes that it survived as a popular word only in the west and east of the Romance area (Portuguese, Spanish, Gascon, Romanian and parts of Corsica and Sardinia), while the other languages replaced it with descendants of spatula.^[10]

The Latin word goes back to *omeso-, with the /s/ turned into /r/ between vowels.^[11][1] Its cognates are Ancient Greek ὦμος (ômos, “shoulder”), Sanskrit अंस (áṃsa) and Gothic 𐌰𐌼𐍃 (ams).^[11][1] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *h₃émsos (“shoulder”), while de Vaan reconstructs *h₂omes-.^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century use the word several times: che mandarei a cabeça d'antr'os teus ombros toller “I will have the head taken off from between your shoulders”, and de cima do onbro “from the top of the shoulder”.^[8] A chronicle of 1344 has beyjaronsse ẽnos ombros e abraçaronsse “they kissed each other on the shoulders and embraced”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From the body part the word came to mean strength and effort: Morais (1789) gives hombro as “effort, force, active diligence”, and the phrase tratar por cima do hombro “to treat someone over the shoulder”, that is, with contempt, as an inferior.^[12] Caldas Aulete records meter ombros a “to put one's shoulder to (a task)” and não ter ombros para “to lack the strength for”.^[13]

Later senses use the shape of the shoulder: the side heights just below the summit of a mountain, the upper curve of a bell, the shoulder of a printing type and part of a horse's hoof.^[2][14] The word passed into Kristang as ombru.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, as ombros and onbros, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][8]
• 1344 – a chronicle has ẽnos ombros.^[8]
• 15th century – the spelling oonbro.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary heads the word Ombro.^[4]
• 1611 – Barbosa writes Hombro and gives trazer nos hombros “to carry on one's shoulders”.^[5]
• 1789 – Morais heads the word hombro and records tratar por cima do hombro.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The shoulder, where the arm joins the trunk, at the meeting of the scapula, the clavicle and the humerus.^[2][15][1]
2. Any raised projection at the side of something, such as the slopes just below a mountain's peak or the upper curve of a bell.^[2][14]
3. The part of a garment that covers the shoulder.^[15][16]
4. (printing) The shoulder of a type: the space between the face and the edge of the body.^[2][17]
5. (farriery) Part of a horse's hoof between the heel and the toe.^[2][16]
6. (figurative) Strength, vigour, robustness.^[2][17]
7. (figurative) Effort, diligence.^[2][17]

Word family

• ombrear
• ombreira

Related words

• úmero
• umeral
• Latin umerus
• Galician ombro
• Spanish hombro

Usage notes

Common phrases are ombro a ombro “side by side, as equals”, encolher os ombros or dar de ombros “to shrug, show indifference”, chorar no ombro de “to pour out one's troubles to” and olhar por cima do ombro “to look down on”.^[2][18] Aurélio and Michaelis also record a separate learned element ombro- “rain”, from Greek, as in ombrófilo.^[17][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ombro
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ombro
4. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ombro
5. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. hombro
6. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. hombro
7. ^ 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, 132
8. ^ 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. ombro
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ombro
10. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 380
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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. 1, 82
13. ^ 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. ombro
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. ombro
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ombro
16. ^ a b 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. ombro
17. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ombro
18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6674