pez

Forms

pez m (plural pezes)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pix (“pitch”), written Old Galician-Portuguese pez in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] Unlike the Castilian word, it is masculine in Galician-Portuguese.^[5] Wiktionary names piche as its doublet.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician pez, Spanish pez, French poix and Italian pece.^[6][1]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *piks and is related to Ancient Greek πίσσα (píssa, “pitch”) and Lithuanian pìkis.^[7][1] De Vaan reconstructs it as Proto-Indo-European *pik- (“pitch”), while Wiktionary also traces it to *pī́ts (“pitch, resin”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use the word in comparisons of blackness: the devil mais ca pez negro “blacker than pitch” and a face that turned negra come pez.^[5] Pero Garcia Burgales has ca chus negr' é ca pez “for she is blacker than pitch”.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the word appears in lists of naval stores: a chronicle of 1344 has tynas con muito pez et rrezina “vats with much pitch and resin”, and documents of 1338 and 1341 name armas ou pez among the goods.^[5] The Horto do Esposo, copied 1390–1437, uses it often.^[9] Barbosa (1611) equates it with breu, and Bluteau describes liquid and dry pitch and how it was made by slowly burning old resinous pine.^[10][11] Modern dictionaries define it as the resin of pines, the dark residue of distilled tar, and natural bitumen.^[2][12][13]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria compare blackness to pez.^[5]
• 1338 – armas ou pez in a document.^[5]
• 1344 – muito pez et rrezina in a chronicle.^[5]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) has pez.^[9]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives pez, alias breu.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as the resin of burnt pine, liquid or solid.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The resin (resina) that oozes from pines and other conifers.^[2][13][15]
2. pitch, the dense black substance obtained by distilling tar (alcatrão); piche.^[2][12][13]
3. A name often given to natural bitumens;^[2][16] pez mineral is bitumen.^[2][16]

Word family

• pesgar
• pesga

Related words

• piche
• píceo
• breu
• Latin pix
• Spanish pez

Usage notes

The Crónica Troiana also has a masculine pez “fish”, from Latin piscis, as in Castilian.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. pez
3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. pez
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pez
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. pez
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6553
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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. pez
9. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. pez
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pez
11. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. pez
12. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. pez
13. ^ a b c 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. pez
14. ^ 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, 197
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. pez
16. ^ a b 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. pez