parelho

Forms

parelho (feminine parelha, masculine plural parelhos, feminine plural parelhas, comparable, comparative mais parelho, superlative o mais parelho or parelhíssimo, diminutive parelhinho, augmentative parelhão)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin pariculus (“alike, equal”), a diminutive of pār (“equal”).^[2][3][1] Wiktionary gives Old Galician-Portuguese parelho as its earliest form.^[2][3][1] Houaiss, Nascentes and the DLP mark the Latin form as reconstructed, but the DHLF notes that it is recorded once, in the Remissoria of the Salic law.^[2][4][5]

The same Latin word is Spanish parejo, French pareil, Occitan parelh, Italian parecchio and Romanian păreche; the Romanian word and Old Spanish pareja continue the sense “spouse” of the Latin word.^[6][1] The Latin cluster ⟨cl⟩ became ⟨lh⟩ /ʎ/ in Portuguese, as it became ⟨j⟩ in Spanish.^[6][1]

The origin of the Latin adjective is unclear: a link with *perh₂- (“to exchange, sell”) fits the vowel badly, and de Vaan suggests *peh₂s-, connecting pāreō.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the adjective to 1544, in a text he cites as Palm, with the sense “made of equal parts” or “similar”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Vieira (1871–1874) defines it simply as “equal, similar to another”.^[8] The original Aulete applies it especially to grain of even size (milho parelho), and Silva Bastos (1912) records a noun of Beira for each of the two parallel rows of stones on which the covers of a mine aqueduct rest.^[9][10]

In Brazil the noun means a man's suit of trousers and jacket in São Paulo, and a flat open field in Rio Grande do Sul; there the adjective is also used of level ground and of a skilled horse or rider, as Plate Spanish uses parejo.^[2][11][12] Today it is often said of an evenly matched contest.^[9]

Timeline

• 1544 – Houaiss's first record.^[2]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira defines it as “equal, similar”.^[8]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the Beira noun for the stone rows of a mine aqueduct.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of equal parts; uniform, even.^[2][4]
2. Very similar, equal; forming a pair with another, of the same parelha.^[2][1]
3. Evenly matched in strength or quality: uma corrida parelha.^[9]
4. Side by side, together.^[2][12]

Noun

1. (São Paulo) A man's suit of trousers and jacket.^[2][4]
2. (Rio Grande do Sul) A flat field without hills.^[2][11]
3. (Beira) Each of the two parallel rows of stones that carry the covering of a mine aqueduct.^[4][10]

Word family

• parelha
• parelhar

Related words

• aparelho
• par
• Latin pār
• Spanish parejo

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. parelho
3. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. parelho
4. ^ a b c d 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. parelho
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pareil
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6241
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 667
9. ^ a b c 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. parelho
10. ^ a b c Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. parelho
11. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. parelho
12. ^ a b 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. parelho