peixe

Forms

peixe m (plural peixes)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had peixe, pexe and peyxe side by side.^[2][3] Nascentes notes that pexe lasted into the 16th century, in the Lusíadas, and still lives in the south of Portugal.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin piscis (“fish”), written Old Galician-Portuguese peixe and Old Galician-Portuguese pexe in the oldest texts.^[3][5][2][1] Nascentes explains the ⟨x⟩ /ʃ/ as the /s/ absorbing the palatalised /k/ of the Latin group ⟨sc⟩, and calls the later diphthong /ej/ in the first syllable hard to explain, as in manteiga and teima.^[4] Nascentes's fuller dictionary adds that Nunes saw an exceptional treatment of the group, whose two parts swapped places.^[6]

The same Latin word is Galician peixe, Spanish pez, Catalan peix, Occitan peis, Italian pesce and Romanian pește.^[7][8][1] French poisson comes from a derivative of the Latin word, as does peixão.^[7][6]

Wiktionary traces the Latin word to Proto-Indo-European *peysk-.^[1] De Vaan compares íasc and 𐍆𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍃 (fisks), and finds the difference in vowel between the Celtic form and the Latin and Germanic forms hard to account for.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Cantigas de Santa Maria: cantiga 339 tells of tres peixes, and cantiga 369 has un pexe and o peyxe in the same poem.^[2] The Miragres de Santiago describe a lake en que andan peixes moy grãdes et moy negros “in which very large and very black fish swim”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the plural Peixes also names the twelfth sign of the zodiac, and later the constellation.^[3] Bluteau explains that many fish are named after land animals or objects they resemble, such as peixe-galo, peixe-porco, peixe-serra and peixe-espada.^[10] Morais (1789) records peixe podre for something worthless and estar como peixe na água “to be at one's ease”.^[11] A cantiga d'escarnho already had the phrase coçar-se con a mão do peixe, to make do with a remedy that does nothing.^[12]

In Brazil the diminutive peixinho, and informally peixe, means a teacher's or a patron's favourite.^[3][13] The first Caldas Aulete gives a regional sense in Portugal, a showy girl.^[14] The word passed into the creoles as pexi in Kabuverdianu and pis in Guinea-Bissau Creole.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – peixes and pexe in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3]
• 13th century – peyxero, the earliest form of peixeiro “fishmonger”.^[5]
• 15th century – the sense “sign of the zodiac”.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it by Latin piscis.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau lists fish named after animals and objects.^[10]
• 1734 – Feijó prescribes the spelling peixe against peiche.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais records estar como peixe na água.^[11]
• 20th century – first records of peixada and peixaria.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. fish, a cold-blooded aquatic vertebrate with fins and gills.^[3][17][1]
2. (Brazil, informal) A favourite, a protégé; peixinho.^[3][13]
3. (in the plural, capitalised) Pisces, the twelfth sign of the zodiac and the constellation between Aquarius and Aries.^[3][18]

Word family

• peixada
• peixaria
• peixeiro
• peixão
• peixinho
• peixe-boi
• peixe-espada
• peixe-agulha
• peixe-balão

Related words

• pesca
• pescado
• pescador
• pescar
• piscatório
• piscina
• Latin piscis
• Spanish pez

Usage notes

Set phrases include estar como peixe na água “to feel at ease” and não ser carne nem peixe “to be neither one thing nor the other”.^[17][18]

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 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. peixe
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. peixe
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. peixe
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. peixe
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 388
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. piscis
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. piscis
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. peixe
11. ^ 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, 179
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. peixe
13. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. peixe
14. ^ 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. peixe
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. peixe
16. ^ 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. peixe
17. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7020
18. ^ a b 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. peixe