praia

Forms

praia f (plural praias)^[1] The older spelling was praya: Bluteau (1712) heads the word so and refers praia to it.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin plagia (“beach, shore”), written Old Galician-Portuguese praya in the oldest texts.^[2][4][5][1] The Late Latin word is found in Isidore of Seville and in Gregory the Great, who about 600 speaks of the Plaia of Naples.^[6] It is probably from πλάγια (plágia, “sides, flanks”), the plural of πλάγιος (plágios, “slanting, sideways”), with the sense moving from “sides” to “slope” and then “sea shore”.^[6][7] Houaiss and Wiktionary see in it also the Latin plaga (“tract, region”), and Wiktionary calls the Late Latin word perhaps a blend of the Latin and the Greek words.^[2][1]

The same word is Galician praia, Spanish playa, Catalan platja, Occitan plaja, French plage and Italian spiaggia.^[1][6] An inherited initial pl- normally became ch- in Portuguese, as in chaga “wound”, from a Latin homonym meaning “blow”, and the lack of this change in the Portuguese and Spanish words has led scholars to explain them as borrowings.^[8][6] Meyer-Lübke took them from an Occitan form plaia;^[9][6] Corominas rejects this, since the Occitan word is late and has a different form, and holds the Ibero-Romance word to be native to the south of the Peninsula, probably a Mozarabism: al-Idrisi already uses the word for a flat open shore in 1154.^[9][6]

De Vaan finds the Latin word for “tract” close in meaning to the Greek words and to flah (“flat”), but formally difficult to connect with them.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 14th century, in the plural prayas, from Cunha's slips of medieval Portuguese;^[2][4] Cunha also gives the 14th century.^[2][4] Lorenzo's earliest dated records are praias e costas do mar “beaches and coasts of the sea” (1426?) and em porto nem em praya “in port nor on beach” (1427), in the sense of a shore where boats can land.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Corominas notes that the word is frequent in the Portuguese classics from the 16th century.^[6] Morais (1789) defines it as the open sea shore without shelter from storms, and the part of the shore that the sea covers at the highest tides and leaves dry at the lowest.^[12] Camões's ocidental praia lusitana “western Lusitanian shore” shows the extended sense “coast, country by the sea”.^[13]

In Brazil the word also means a sand bank in a river left dry when the water is low, and in Rio Grande do Sul the yard of a charqueada where the cattle are cut up.^[14][15] The salt-pans of Portugal use the plural for the reservoir that feeds the pans.^[16] Brazilian slang made não é a minha praia “it's not my scene, not my field”.^[2][1] Hong Kong English has the word as praya.^[1]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, in the plural prayas.^[2][4]
• 1426? – praias e costas do mar; 1427 em porto nem em praya.^[11]
• 15th century – the spelling praia.^[2]
• 1526 – the chronicle of Nuno Álvares Pereira has la praia do Tejo.^[6]
• 16th century – first record of espraiar.^[4]
• 1712 – Bluteau heads the word praya.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as the shore between high and low tide.^[12]
• 20th century – first record of praieiro.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A beach: a gently sloping strip of land, usually sandy, along the sea, a river or a lake.^{[2][14][17][1]}
2. Such a beach used for bathing and sunbathing; a seaside resort: Vamos passar o verão na praia.^[2][18][14]
3. (by extension) The coast, the seaside, a region on the sea.^[2][17][19]
4. (Brazil) A sand bank or low island in a river, uncovered when the water is low.^[14][16]
5. (Rio Grande do Sul) The yard of a charqueada where the cattle are cut up.^[2][14]
6. (Brazil, informal) One's field, speciality or usual scene: Futebol não é a minha praia.^[2][18][1]
7. (salt-making, in the plural) The reservoir that supplies the salt pans.^[16][20]

Word family

• espraiar
• praieiro
• praiano
• prainha
• preia-mar

Related words

• plaga
• Galician praia
• Spanish playa

Usage notes

Morrer na praia “to die on the beach” is to fail at the last moment after great effort.^[2][13] With a capital, Praia is the capital of Cape Verde.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. praia
3. ^ 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. praia
4. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. praia
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. praia
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 574
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. playa
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. plaga
9. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 412
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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. praia
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, 227
13. ^ 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. praia
14. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. praia
15. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. praia
16. ^ a b c 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. praia
17. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7393
18. ^ a b 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. praia
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. praia
20. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. praia