ovelha

Forms

ovelha f (plural ovelhas, masculine carneiro, masculine plural carneiros)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote ovella and ovellya in the 13th century, ovelhas, ouelha and ouvelhas in the 14th.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ovicula (“little sheep”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ovella in the 13th century.^[2][3][5][1] The Latin word is the diminutive of ovis (“sheep”).^[2][6] It is a late word, found in Apuleius and Augustine, and Aurélio and Corominas call it Late Latin.^[7][8][9] Of the simple Latin noun the REW lists only Romanian oaie.^[10]

The same diminutive is Galician ovella, Mirandese oubeilha, Spanish oveja and Asturian oveya.^[1][11] The Spanish word is first recorded in an Aragonese document of 1090.^[9]

The Latin noun goes back to *owis, from *h₂ówis (“sheep”) (de Vaan reconstructs *h₃eu-i-).^[1][12] It is cognate with ὄϊς (óïs), avìs, овца (ovcá) and ewe.^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria already use the word for the animal: a man come ovella / era velos'e coberto de lãa “like a sheep was hairy and covered with wool”, and another cantiga has nen ovellas nen carneiros “neither ewes nor rams”.^[4] The 14th-century Crónica Troiana lists the ouella among the livestock beside the cow and the camel.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) has ovelhinha and ovelheyro “shepherd” beside the noun.^[13] Morais (1789) calls the ewe a symbol of meekness and docility, and records the figurative use for the parishioners of a priest or the faithful of a bishop, who are “his sheep”.^[14] Modern dictionaries keep these two senses and add the dish of ewe's meat, and fixed phrases such as ovelha negra “black sheep”.^[8][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – ovella in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][2]
• 14th century – the spellings ouelha and ovelhas.^[2]
• c. 1430 – ovelha in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[16]
• 1544 – ovelhas in a private letter.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists ovelhinha and ovelheyro.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records the sense “parishioner”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A female sheep, a ewe; the animal in general: As ovelhas pastavam no monte.^{[2][8][1][15]}
2. (cooking) A dish of ewe's meat.^[8]
3. (figurative) A member of a parish or diocese, or a Christian, in relation to the pastor.^[2][18]

Word family

• ovelheiro
• ovelhum

Related words

• ovino
• ovil
• carneiro
• Latin ovis
• Galician ovella
• Spanish oveja

Usage notes

Ovelha negra “black sheep” is a person who stands out in a group or family for bad behaviour.^[8][15] Ovelha ronhosa, “mangy sheep”, is a person to be avoided.^[15] Porto notes that the form ovelha ranhosa has spread although it is a mistake, and Michaelis records ovelha tinhosa in the same sense.^[15][19] In southern Brazil carneira is a synonym.^[8]

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. ovelha
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ovelha
4. ^ a b c d 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. ovella
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ovelha
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ovicula
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ovicula
8. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ovelha
9. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 324
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6127
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ovicula
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ovelha
14. ^ 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, 142
15. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6788
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ovelha
17. ^ 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. ovelha
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ovelha
19. ^ 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. ovelha