pente

Forms

pente m (plural pentes)^[1] The older form pentem was still used in literature in the 16th century and lived on in the speech of Beira.^[2][3] Morais (1789) prefers pente to pentem.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pecten (“comb”), through the older form Old Galician-Portuguese pentem.^[5][6][1] Nascentes reconstructs the steps *peitne, *peinte and *peintem: /kt/ became /it/, the nasal moved forward, the diphthong was reduced, and the final nasal was later lost by dissimilation.^[2][3][5] Wiktionary sets up the medieval form *peitẽe, and Cunha's 13th-century peitear “to comb” keeps the stage with ⟨it⟩ in the verb.^[1][6]

The same Latin word is Galician peite, Spanish peine, Catalan pinta, French peigne, Italian pettine and Romanian pieptene.^[1][7] The Latin noun belongs with pectō (“to comb”) and comes from *pekten, from Proto-Indo-European *pḱtḗn, built on the root *peḱ- (“to pluck”); it is cognate with Ancient Greek κτείς (kteís).^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in Lorenzo's chronology is from 1364: dous pentes d'almaffa e outro de madeiro, two combs of one material “and another of wood”.^[9][5] The sense is the hair comb.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The plural penteens appears in 1450.^[9] Combs were also worn as ornaments: Vieira quotes a poem by Dinis da Cruz that lists the comb among a woman's finery, and names the iron comb used to card tow.^[10] The word was transferred to many comb-shaped tools: the weaver's reed, the wool-carder's iron comb, the embroiderer's comb for cleaning raised work and the mat-maker's comb.^[5][11]

Houaiss dates to 1899 the sense of a run of four games won in a row at bisca.^[5] Modern senses include the magazine of an automatic weapon and, informally, the pubis; in Lisbon slang it meant a showy, buxom woman.^[5][12] The phrase passar a pente fino “to go over with a fine-tooth comb” means to inspect very closely.^[13]

Timeline

• 13th century – the verb peitear “to comb”.^[6]
• 1364 – dous pentes d'almaffa e outro de madeiro.^[9]
• 1438 – the derivative penteamento.^[6]
• 1450 – the plural penteens.^[9]
• 16th century – Camões still writes pentem in Os Lusíadas (VI, 17).^[3]
• 1789 – Morais prefers pente to pentem.^[4]
• 1899 – the card-game sense at bisca.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A comb for the hair.^[5][11][1]
2. A shorter comb with long teeth, used to hold or adorn the hair.^[5][11]
3. Any of several comb-like tools: the reed of a loom, a wool-carder's iron comb, an embroiderer's comb, a mat-maker's comb.^[5][11]
4. (weaponry) The magazine or clip of an automatic weapon.^[5][14]
5. (card games) At bisca, four games won in a row by one player while the others score nothing.^[5][15]
6. (zoology) A row of short bristles on the legs of insects; a scallop.^[5][13]
7. (informal) The pubis.^[5][15]
8. (Portugal, Lisbon slang) A showy, good-looking woman.^[5][12]

Word family

• penteadeira
• penteado
• pentear

Related words

• Latin pecten
• Galician peite
• Spanish peine

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pente
3. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 390
4. ^ 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, 184
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pente
6. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pente
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. peine
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pecten
9. ^ 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. pente
10. ^ 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, 741
11. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pente
12. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. pente
13. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7055
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. pente
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pente