ovo

Forms

ovo m (plural ovos, metaphonic)^[1] Houaiss records ovo and ov' in the 13th century, ovus in 1365, ouos in the 14th century and ouvo in the 15th.^[2] The singular has closed /o/ and the plural ovos open /ɔ/.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ōvum (“egg”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ovo in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] Wiktionary sets a Vulgar Latin *ŏvum with a short vowel between them.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician ovo, Spanish huevo, Catalan ou, Occitan uòu, French œuf, Italian uovo and Romanian ou.^[5][1] The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *ōw(j)om and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”); its cognates include Ancient Greek ᾠόν (ōión) and Welsh wy.^[6][1] ova “roe” comes from the plural of the Latin word.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded from the 13th century.^[2][4] The Cantigas de Santa Maria compare something to d'anssar un grand'ovo “a big goose egg” and mention un ov'assado mui mole “a soft roasted egg”.^[7] The sense is the bird's egg, as food.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) lists ovo fresco, ovo choco “addled egg” and the egg that was not fertilised.^[8] Bluteau (1712) defines the egg as what becomes a bird, fish, lizard or insect, and notes that fish eggs are called ovas.^[9] Morais (1789) records cheio como um ovo “packed full” and ao frigir dos ovos “when it comes to the point”.^[10]

Biology gave it the sense of the fertilised egg cell, the zygote; figuratively it is the germ or origin of something, and informally, in the plural, the testicles.^[2][11] The Surinamese creole Saramaccan has óbo from the Portuguese word.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria among others.^[2][4][7]
• 1365 – the plural spelt ovus.^[2]
• 16th century – first records of ova and desovar.^[4]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists ovo fresco and ovo choco.^[8]
• 1712 – Bluteau distinguishes ovas, the eggs of fish.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais records cheio como um ovo.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An egg, the body laid by birds, reptiles, fish and other animals, containing the embryo and its food inside a shell or membrane.^[2][3][1]
2. (biology) The fertilised egg cell; zygote.^[2][11][1]
3. A hen's egg, as food: ovos mexidos.^[2][1]
4. (figurative) The germ, origin or first principle of something.^[2][11][1]
5. (informal, in the plural) The testicles.^[2][11]

Word family

• ovar
• desovar
• ovinho
• ovos-moles

Related words

• ova
• ovíparo
• ovologia
• Latin ōvum
• Spanish huevo
• Galician ovo

Usage notes

Ovo de Colombo is a solution that looks simple once someone has shown it.^[2][11] An ovo de Páscoa is an Easter egg, now usually of chocolate.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. ovo
3. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ovo
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ovo
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. ovum
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. ^ 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. ovo
8. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ovo
9. ^ 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. ovo
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ovo