pele

Forms

pele f (plural peles)^[1] Medieval texts write pelle, pele and pel.^[2][3] Bluteau (1712) heads the word pelle and refers pele to it.^[4] The REW still gives the Portuguese form as pelle.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pellis (“skin, hide”), recorded as Old Galician-Portuguese peles in 1269 and as Old Galician-Portuguese pel in the 14th century.^[2][3][1] In popular Latin the word, first the skin of an animal, displaced cutis as the word for human skin.^[6]

The same Latin word is Galician pel, Spanish piel, Catalan pell, Occitan pèl, French peau, Italian pelle and Romanian piele.^[5][1][7] A charter of 939 already has Old Spanish pielle.^[8]

The Latin noun goes back to *pelni- and Proto-Indo-European *pel-ni- (“skin, hide”).^[9][1] De Vaan compares Old High German fel and Old English fell, and Baltic and Slavic words for “membrane”, and notes that the root *pel- may have meant “to strip, to skin”, though no forms of such a root are attested on their own.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 953 already writes IIas pelles anninias “two lambskins”, the oldest record Lorenzo's chronology gives.^[3][2] The first vernacular record is peles in 1269.^[2][3] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria a tanner sas peles lavrava “worked his hides”, and the Crónica of 1344 has a queen com sua pelle vestida “dressed in her fur”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word was first of all the hide or fur of an animal, worked into leather or worn as a garment, as in pelle armina “ermine fur” in the Crónica Geral.^[3] The senses of the modern dictionaries run from the human and animal skin to the complexion, tanned leather, furs and fur coats, the peel of fruit and the gristle of meat.^[2][10][11] Figuratively pele is the person or body itself, as in defender a pele.^[2][12] In Pará it names a flat disc of raw rubber prepared for sale, and in informal Brazilian Portuguese a person others make fun of or blame for everything.^[2][13] The word passed into pele and peli.^[1]

Timeline

• 953 – pelles in a Latin charter.^[3][2]
• 1269 – peles, the first vernacular record.^[2][3]
• 13th century, second half – sas peles lavrava in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3]
• 1344 – com sua pelle vestida in the Crónica of 1344.^[3]
• 14th century – the form pel.^[2]
• 1544 – the word in a private letter.^[14]
• 1712 – Bluteau heads the word pelle.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. skin, the outer covering of the body of humans and animals.^[2][10][1]
2. (informal) The outer layer of the skin, the epidermis.^[2][10]
3. The skin of the face, the complexion.^[2][12]
4. Loose, sagging skin; pelanca.^[2][10]
5. The tanned hide of an animal, leather.^[2][15]
6. An animal skin with its hair, a fur; a fur coat, stole or rug.^[2][16][1]
7. The gristly part of meat.^[2][15]
8. The skin or peel of a fruit or vegetable.^[2][13][1]
9. (figurative) One's own body or person.^[2][13]
10. (Pará) A flat disc of raw rubber prepared for sale.^[2][13]
11. (Brazil, informal) A person mocked by others; a scapegoat.^[2]

Word family

• pelagem
• pelanca
• pelar
• peleiro
• pele-vermelha

Related words

• pelica
• peliça
• película
• pelicular
• Latin pellis
• Galician pel
• Spanish piel

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include sentir na pele “to feel something on one's own skin, to experience it oneself”, defender a pele “to defend one's skin, look after oneself” and cortar na pele de alguém “to speak ill of someone”.^[1][15][12]

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 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. pele
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. pele
4. ^ 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. pele
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. peau
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pellis
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 537
9. ^ a b 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 c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pele
11. ^ 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. pele
12. ^ 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. pele
13. ^ a b c d 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. pele
14. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. pele
15. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pele
16. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7027