poro

Forms

poro m (plural poros)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin porus (“channel, passage, pore”), which is from Ancient Greek πόρος (póros, “passage, way across by water or land”).^[2][3][4][1] Lewis & Short find the Latin word in Ambrose and Isidore, for the passages of the heart and of the air, and in Pliny.^[5] The Greek noun is from the o-grade of πείρω (peírō, “to pierce, run through”).^[1][6] LSJ's first senses are “ford, ferry”, as in the Iliad.^[6]

The same word is Galician poro, Spanish poro, French pore and Italian poro.^[1][7] Corominas dates the Spanish word to about 1440 and calls it a borrowing from Late Latin.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and the addenda to Cunha date the word to the 14th century.^[2][3] The CTA's first record is in the Horto do Esposo, in a witness of 1390–1437.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Nascentes notes that the word specialised for the openings through which sweat passes through the skin and for the spaces between molecules.^[10] Feijó (1734) spells poro and poros and glosses them as the openings through which sweat leaves the body, and Morais (1789) widens this to the tiny holes in all bodies through which they transpire and exhale.^[11][12] Vieira (1871–1874) and Caldas Aulete add the pores through which liquids are absorbed and light passes, the hypothetical spaces between molecules, and the openings in the stems and leaves of plants.^[13][14] Modern botany also uses it for the openings of pollen grains and the vessels seen in cross-section.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 14th century – Houaiss's and Cunha's date for the word.^[2][3]
• 1390–1437 – poro in a witness of the Horto do Esposo.^[9]
• 16th century – Cunha's date for poroso.^[3]
• 1734 – Feijó gives poro and poros.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais defines it for all bodies.^[12]
• 1813 – first record of porosidade.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tiny opening in the surface or structure of a living being or of an inanimate body, such as wood or rock.^[2][14][1]
2. (anatomy) Each of the small openings in the skin through which the sweat glands discharge.^{[2][15][17][1]}
3. (physics) Each of the hypothetical spaces between the molecules of a body.^[14][16]
4. (botany) A very narrow opening in a plant or plant organ, such as the aperture of a pollen grain; a vessel seen in cross-section.^[16][15]

Word family

• poroso
• porosidade
• porejar

Related words

• Latin porus
• Ancient Greek πόρος (póros)
• Spanish poro

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. poro
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. poro
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. poro
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. πόρος
7. ^ 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. poro
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 615
9. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. poro
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 411
11. ^ 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. poro
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, 220
13. ^ 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, 851
14. ^ 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. poro
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. poro
16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. poro
17. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7351