polegar

Forms

polegar m (plural polegares)^[1] Houaiss records polegar and pulgar in the 13th century, poleguar and pelegar in the 14th, and the plural pollegares in the 15th.^[2] Bluteau and Folqman give polgar beside polegar.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pollicāris (“of a thumb, as thick or as long as a thumb”), an adjective first used with dedo “finger” and then on its own as a noun.^[2][5][1] The Latin adjective is formed from pollex (“thumb”) and the suffix -āris.^[6][1] Nascentes notes that in Latin it meant “an inch long”.^[7] The old spelling was Old Galician-Portuguese pollegar.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician polgar, Spanish pulgar, Old Occitan polgar and Old French pochier.^[8][1] The DCECH and the Breve diccionario explain the -u- of the Spanish word by the influence of pulga (“flea”), the insect killed with this finger.^[9][10]

The origin of the Latin noun is unclear: de Vaan does not accept the old comparison with Proto-Slavic *palьcь (“finger”), and prefers Meier-Brügger's explanation from a form meaning “which is licked over”, from Proto-Indo-European *leyǵʰ- (“to lick”).^[11][1] Bluteau had derived it from polleō (“to be strong”), because the thumb is the strongest finger.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cantiga in the Cantigas de Santa Maria tells of a creature that lli mordeu no polegar “bit him on the thumb”.^[12] Houaiss dates both the noun and the adjective to the 13th century, and gives an earlier date, 1124, from Machado's records, for the adjective in the sense “an inch long”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word is still both a noun and an adjective, as in dedo polegar.^[2][1] Bluteau notes its use as a measure, the length from the tip of the thumbnail to the joint, in Filippe Nunes's Arte da Pintura.^[3] Barbosa in 1611 already has polegar da vide, the short spur left on a pruned vine, a sense Morais and the modern dictionaries keep.^[13][14][15] Aurélio extends it to the opposable digit of birds.^[16]

Timeline

• 1124 – Houaiss's earliest date for the adjective, taken from Machado.^[2]
• 13th century – polegar and pulgar.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have mordeu no polegar.^[12]
• 14th century – the spellings poleguar and pelegar.^[2]
• 1496 – polegar in the Regimento proveitoso contra a pestenença.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists polegar da vide.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records polgar and the use as a measure.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The thumb: Cortou-se no polegar ao descascar a laranja.^[2][18][1]
2. The big toe.^[18][1]
3. (viticulture) A short spur left on a pruned vine, with one to three buds.^[15][18]
4. (zoology) The digit of a bird that is opposed to the others.^[16]

Adjective

1. Of the thumb or the big toe: dedo polegar.^[2][15][1]
2. Measuring an inch (polegada).^[2]

Related words

• polegada
• empolgar
• Latin pollex
• Spanish pulgar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. polegar
3. ^ a b c d Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. polegar
4. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. polegar
5. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. poleá
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pollicāris
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. polegar
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6638
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 686
10. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pulgar
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b 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. polegar
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. polegar
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, 212
15. ^ 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. polegar
16. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. polegar
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. polegar
18. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. polegar