palha

Forms

palha f (plural palhas)^[1] The 13th-century texts write palla;^[2][3] palha is recorded from 1365.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin palea (“chaff”), written Old Galician-Portuguese palla in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] In classical Latin the word meant the husks of grain, chaff; the sense “straw” appears in late Latin, perhaps because the chaff once used as litter was replaced by straw.^[5][6][7] The same Latin word is Galician palla, Spanish paja, Catalan palla, Occitan palha, French paille, Italian paglia and Romanian paie.^[8][1]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *pelh₁- (“chaff”) and compares Sanskrit पलाव (palā́va, “chaff”) and Lithuanian pelūs; he suggests these come from a verb “to swing”, the chaff being what is shaken off in threshing.^[9][1] Bluteau in 1712 had derived it from pāla (“winnowing shovel”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Cantiga de Santa Maria says that whoever goes against the Virgin palla é contra vento “is straw against the wind”; others speak of a hut feita de palla and of a hat of straw.^[3] A charter of 1296 lists dues de çeuada et de palla “of barley and straw”.^[3] Already in the cantigas palha means a worthless thing: Airas Nunez has valor dũa palha “the worth of a straw”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Besides the stalks of cereals and straw as fodder, the word has meant since the Middle Ages a thing of no value.^[11][2] Morais in 1813 records the phrases travar palha “to bandy words” and por dá cá aquela palha “for no reason at all”.^[13] It came to mean the strips of rush or straw used for chair seats and hats, and on ships the thickness of a mast.^[2][14]

In Brazil it names a drinking straw, low-grade marijuana and, as an adjective, anything poor or dull; in Portugal it is idle talk.^{[2][14][15][16]} The derivative palheiro “hayloft” is already in a Latin charter of 1124 as palleario.^[17] palhaço “clown” is a separate loan from pagliaccio.^[8]

Timeline

• 1124 – palleario “straw loft” in a Latin charter.^[17]
• 13th century – palla in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2]
• 1296 – de çeuada et de palla in a charter.^[3]
• 1365 – the spelling palha.^[2]
• c. 1430 – palha in the Horto do Esposo (manuscript of 1390–1437).^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses palha with Latin stipula.^[19]
• 1789 – first record of palhinha.^[20]
• 1813 – Morais records por dá cá aquela palha.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. straw: the dry stalks of cereals and other grasses, used as fodder, litter and in industry: um fardo de palha.^[2][14][1]
2. A dry, pliable strip of rush, cane or wicker used to weave objects: cadeira de palha.^[2][14]
3. (figurative) A trifle, a thing of no value.^[2][14][1]
4. (Portugal, colloquial) Empty words, padding.^[21][16][1]
5. (Brazil) A drinking straw, palhinha.^[2][14]
6. (Brazil, slang) Low-grade marijuana.^[2][14]
7. (nautical) The diameter of a mast, yard or spar.^[2][14]

Adjective

1. (Brazil, informal) Of poor quality; dull, boring.^[2][14][15]

Word family

• palheiro
• palhoça
• palhinha
• palhota
• palhal
• empalhar

Related words

• palhaço
• Latin palea
• Galician palla
• Spanish paja

Usage notes

Por dá cá aquela palha means “for no reason, over a trifle”, and não mexer uma palha “not to move a straw” means to do nothing at all.^[16][2] Palhas alhas are the dry leaves of garlic and, in Portugal, trifles.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. palha
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. palla
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. palha
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. palea
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. paille
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 342
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6161
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. palea
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. palha
11. ^ a b 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. palha
12. ^ 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. palha
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 385
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. palha
15. ^ a b 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. palha
16. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6830
17. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. palheiro
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. palha
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. palha
20. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. palhinha
21. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. palha