perdiz

Forms

perdiz f (plural perdizes, masculine perdigão, masculine plural perdigões)^[1] Houaiss records the plural perdizes between 1188 and 1230 and the singular perdiz in the 13th century.^[2] Feijó in 1734 insists on the plural perdizes, not perdices, like felizes and codornizes.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin perdīx (“partridge”), written Old Galician-Portuguese perdiz in the oldest texts.^[2][1][4] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek πέρδιξ (pérdix, “partridge”).^[1][4][5]

The same Latin word is Galician perdiz, Spanish perdiz, Catalan perdiu, Occitan perditz, French perdrix and Italian perdice;^[6][1] Italian also has pernice, whose form was influenced by the Latin word for “quail”.^[6][1]

The Greek word was traditionally derived from πέρδομαι (pérdomai, “to fart”), after the whirring noise the birds make when they take wing;^[1][7] Beekes takes it rather as a Pre-Greek word, because of its suffix -ῑκ-.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria compare a plucked man to a partridge (como perdiz assi o depenavan “they plucked him like a partridge”), speak of a land rich in partridge and rabbit, and of going out to catch partridges; a cantiga d'escarnho by Pero Garcia d'Ambroa has e matarei ũũ par de perdizes “and I will kill a brace of partridges”.^[8][9] In all of them it is the game bird.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569), Pereira (1697) and Morais (1789) render the word simply by Latin perdix;^{[10][11][12][13]} Bluteau describes it as a bird that does not perch in trees and flies little but noisily.^{[10][11][12][13]} In Brazil the name passed to native tinamous of the open country, above all Rhynchotus rufescens; in Rio Grande do Sul it is the smaller Nothura maculosa, called codorna in the rest of the country.^[2][14][15] Caldas Aulete and Silva Bastos record a vulgar perdiz “loss, damage”, which Aulete explains by the influence of the verb perder.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 1188–1230 – Houaiss's first date, for the plural perdizes.^[2]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use perdiz.^[8]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists perdiz, Latin perdix.^[10]
• 1734 – Feijó fixes the plural perdizes.^[3]
• 1871 – Vieira describes the genus of gallinaceous birds with four European species.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A partridge, any of several Old World game birds of the genera Perdix and Alectoris.^[2][1][19]
2. (Brazil) The red-winged tinamou (Rhynchotus rufescens), a ground bird of the grasslands and cerrado, much hunted.^[2][14]
3. (Brazil) The spotted nothura (Nothura maculosa), also called codorna; in Rio Grande do Sul the usual sense.^[2][15]

Word family

• perdigão

Related words

• Latin perdīx
• Spanish perdiz

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. perdiz
3. ^ a b 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. perdiz
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. perdiz
5. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. perdiz
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6404
7. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. πέρδιξ
8. ^ a b c 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. perdiz
9. ^ 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. perdiz
10. ^ a b c Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. perdiz
11. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. perdiz
12. ^ 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, 186
13. ^ 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. perdiz
14. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. perdiz
15. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. perdiz
16. ^ 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. perdiz
17. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. perdiz
18. ^ 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, 755
19. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. perdiz