onda

Forms

onda f (plural ondas)^[1] Houaiss records hondas and hõdas in the 14th century and omdas in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin unda (“wave; water in motion”), written Old Galician-Portuguese onda in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4]

The same Latin word is Galician onda, Spanish onda, Catalan ona, French onde, Italian onda and Romanian undă.^[1][5]

De Vaan connects the Latin word with the Indo-European word for water, Proto-Indo-European *ud-ōr, with an oblique stem *ud-n-, the source of Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (húdōr) and of the English word water.^[6][7] Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain: perhaps a collective *udn-om (“body of water”), taken as a feminine singular, with the consonants swapped; the likeness of Proto-Germanic *unþī (“wave”) it considers coincidental.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology finds the word in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century, where Machado had known it only from the 16th: o vento moveu as ondas “the wind stirred the waves”, and a woman who gives birth dentro nas ondas “in the middle of the waves”.^[4] A cantiga d'amigo begins Ai ondas que eu vin mirar “O waves that I came to see”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) defines the wave as water of the rivers or the sea rising and falling with the wind.^[9] Morais (1813) adds the figurative waves of a garment, of curly hair, of silks and marbles, the waves of a flame, and ondas de alvoroços “surges of excitement”.^[10] In poetry as ondas is the sea itself.^[2][11]

From the surge of water the word passed to any great flow or crowd (uma onda de pessoas), to a sudden feeling, and in physics to a disturbance that travels through a medium.^[2][1] Brazilian informal speech gave it the senses “commotion”, “fashion, what is in vogue”, “something great”, “a drug high” and “sham, show”.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – ondas in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4]
• 14th century – the spellings hondas and hõdas.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses onda with Latin fluctus.^[12]
• 1572 – first record of ondeado “wavy”.^[3]
• 1813 – Morais records the figurative waves of hair, silk and feelings.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wave: each of the ridges raised on the sea, a lake or a river by the wind or the tides: As ondas rebentavam contra o paredão.^[2][13][1]
2. (literary) The sea, the waters of the sea.^[2][13]
3. A great flow of liquid; a great quantity or crowd of people or things in motion: uma onda de turistas.^[2][13]
4. Impetuous force, agitation; a sudden rush of a feeling: uma onda de raiva.^[2][14]
5. An undulation; a wavy line or outline, as of hair.^[2][1]
6. (physics) A periodic disturbance that travels through a medium or through space.^[2][1]
7. (Brazil, informal) A commotion, uproar.^[2]
8. (Brazil, informal) What is in fashion; a trend.^[2][1]
9. (Brazil, informal) Something wonderful; a high from a drug.^[2][15]
10. (Brazil, informal) A pretence, show meant to impress.^[2]

Word family

• ondear
• ondeado
• ondejar
• ondada

Related words

• ondina
• ondulação
• ondulado
• ondulância
• ondulante
• ondular
• ondulatório
• onduloso
• Latin unda
• Galician onda

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. onda
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. onda
4. ^ a b c 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. onda
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. unda
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. unda
8. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. onda
9. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. onda
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 365
11. ^ 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. onda
12. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. onda
13. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. onda
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. onda
15. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. onda