porta

Forms

porta f (plural portas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin porta (“city gate; door”), written Old Galician-Portuguese porta in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Classical Latin tended to keep the word for the gate of a town, while the door of a house was ostium or iānua and that of a room forēs;^[5] Corominas notes that the distinction was never strict.^[5]

The same Latin word is Galician porta, Spanish puerta, Catalan porta, French porte, Italian porta and Romanian poartă.^[6][1] De Vaan takes the Latin noun to be probably the feminine of a past participle Proto-Indo-European *pr-to- (“passed, crossed”), from which portō (“to carry”) was also derived;^[7][1] Wiktionary gives *pr̥téh₂, from the root *per- (“to pass through”), and compares portus (“harbour”) and Ancient Greek πόρος (póros, “means of passage”).^[7][1] Bluteau derived the word from the Latin verbs for “to carry” and “to carry across”, because things are carried in and out through doors.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date, 1154, is the Latin form portam, from Machado; the Portuguese word follows in the 13th century.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have it for city gates (mandou enton Cesar as portas abrir “then Caesar ordered the gates to be opened”) and for house doors, as in begging per portas “from door to door”.^[9] A document of 1272 names a Johan Uidal da Porta.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's dictionary of 1562 glosses the word as the gate of a city, and that of 1569 as a house door.^[10][11] Barbosa (1611) distinguishes the gate of a town from the door of a house, and lists portas fronhas “large double doors” and porta d'alçapão “trapdoor”.^[12] Morais (1813) defines the door as a leaf of wood or iron turning on hinges, and records negar porta “to refuse to see someone”.^[13] Houaiss dates the anatomical sense, the portal vein, to 1670.^[2]

Figurative senses, “access” and “means of achieving something”, and geographical ones, “narrow pass” and “strait”, are recorded in modern dictionaries; computing has added “port”.^[2][14] A Porta or Sublime Porta was the name of the government of the Ottoman sultans.^[2]

Timeline

• 1154 – portam in a Latin text, Houaiss's first date.^[2]
• 13th century – first record of the Portuguese word.^[2][3]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use it for city gates and house doors.^[9]
• 1272 – the surname da Porta in a document.^[9]
• 1416 – the Vida de Santo Aleixo uses porta.^[15]
• 1562 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses A porta da cidade.^[10]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists portas fronhas and porta d'alçapão.^[12]
• 1670 – the anatomical sense “portal vein”.^[2]
• 1813 – portada and portão.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A doorway: an opening at floor level in a wall, for going in and out: Espera-me à porta da escola.^[2][16]
2. A door: the leaf of wood, metal or glass that closes it.^[2][16]
3. The door of a vehicle, cupboard, safe and the like: a porta do frigorífico.^[2][17]
4. (historical) A city gate in a town wall.^[2]
5. (figurative) Entrance, access; a means of achieving something: O estudo foi a porta para uma vida melhor.^[2][14]
6. A narrow pass, gorge; a strait.^[2][14]
7. (anatomy) The portal vein (veia porta).^[2][4]
8. (computing) A port.^[14]

Word family

• portada
• portal
• portaló
• portão
• portaria
• porteira
• porteiro
• portela

Related words

• porto
• pórtico
• Latin porta
• Spanish puerta

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include de porta em porta “from door to door”, a portas fechadas “behind closed doors” and surdo como uma porta “deaf as a post”.^[2][1][18] The prefix porta- of porta-aviões is a different element, from the verb portar.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. porta
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. porta
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. porta
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 681
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6671
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, p. s.v. porta
8. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. porta
9. ^ a b c d 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. porta
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1562), Dictionarium juventuti studiosae admodum frugiferum, Coimbra: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. porta
11. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. porta
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. porta
13. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 473
14. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7354
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. porta
16. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. porta
17. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. porta
18. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. porta