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peça

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word peça

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s Cantigas de Santa Maria More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin pettia
Ultimate origin
Gaulish *pettyā

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈpɛ.sɐ/[1]
  • Portugal: /ˈpɛ.sɐ/[1]

Forms

peça f (plural peças)[1] A Latin charter of 977 spells it peza; the spelling peça is found from the 13th century.[2][3] Feijó (1734) rejects the spelling pessa.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin pettia (“piece”), written Old Galician-Portuguese peça in the oldest texts.[1][3] Houaiss, Cunha and Nascentes call the word Celtic, “piece”;[2][5][6][1] Wiktionary traces the Late Latin word to Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis (“piece, portion”), and compares Old Irish cuit.[2][5][6][1] The Celtic origin rests on the comparison with Welsh peth and Breton pez (“piece”).[7][8] Wiktionary's Latin entry calls the word of uncertain origin: it is first recorded in the Lex Salica.[1]

The same word is Galician peza, Spanish pieza, Catalan peça, French pièce and Italian pezza, with pezzo.[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters write peza for a plot of land: peza de bacellare “a piece of young vineyard” in 977, una peza de terra in 985.[3][2] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the word has several senses: a piece of meat or of land, the pieces of a broken staff, and, in phrases such as gran peça, a long while, a long way or a great number.[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The medieval senses of quantity and time (gran peça de cavaleiros “many knights”, á mui gran peça “a long time ago”) were common in medieval Galician and Portuguese but have not survived;[3][10] Viterbo still explained peça ha as “a long time ago”.[3][10] The cantigas d'escarnho also use it for the penis, a sense that Brazilian Portuguese still has for that of an animal.[3][2][11]

Bluteau (1712–1728) gives the piece of cloth woven in one go and any piece of furniture;[12][13] Folqman (1755) a piece of artillery and fazer uma peça “to play a trick”.[12][13] Morais (1789) adds a coin, by default one of 6,400 réis, and the pieces of chess and backgammon, and Vieira (1871–1874) the room of a house.[14][15] The Spanish and Portuguese colonists of America used the word for a slave, especially an Indian one.[16] Modern senses include a play for the theatre, a piece of music, a document in a lawsuit and a part of a machine.[2]

Timeline

  • 977 – peza de bacellare in a Latin charter.[3][2]
  • 13th century – peça in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the cantigas d'escarnho.[3][5]
  • 1278 – first record in Galician administrative texts.[3]
  • 1344 – cõ peça de cavalleiros “with many knights” in the Crónica de 1344.[3]
  • 1416 – first record in the CTA.[17]
  • 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes peça de pano, a piece of cloth.[12]
  • 1755 – Folqman lists peça de artelharia.[13]
  • 1789 – Morais records the coin and the chessman.[14]
  • 1871–1874 – Vieira records peça da casa, a room.[15]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A piece or part of a whole: uma peça de queijo.[2][18][1]
  2. Each element or unit of a set or mechanism: uma peça do motor.[2][18]
  3. An object taken by itself, a specimen; a piece of jewellery.[2][19]
  4. A room of a house.[2][20][1]
  5. A piece in a board game; a chessman.[2][20][1]
  6. A play for the theatre; a piece of music or literature.[2][20][1]
  7. (law) A document that forms part of a case file.[2][20]
  8. A length of cloth as it comes from the loom.[2][21]
  9. (historical) An old Portuguese gold coin.[2][20]
  10. (military) A piece of artillery, a cannon.[2][21]
  11. (Brazil, informal) A trick played on someone: pregar uma peça.[2]
  12. (figurative) An odd or amusing person.[2]
  13. (Brazil, slang) A gun.[1]
  14. (southern Brazil) The penis, especially of a horse or donkey.[2][11]
  • Late Latin pettia
  • Galician peza
  • Spanish pieza
  • French pièce

Usage notes

Pregar uma peça means to play a trick on someone, and peça de resistência is the main dish of a meal or the high point of a programme.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 r s t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. peça
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. peça
  4. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. peça
  5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. peça
  6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. peça
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6450
  8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pieza
  9. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. peça
  10. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 207
  11. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. peça
  12. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. peça
  13. ^ a b c Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. peça
  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, 173
  15. ^ 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, 713
  16. ^ Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 501
  17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. peça
  18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. peça
  19. ^ 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. peça
  20. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6992
  21. ^ 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. peça

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Peça.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/pe%C3%A7a. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·