prato

Forms

prato m (plural pratos)^[1] Houaiss records the spelling platos in 1567.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French plat (“dish, plate”), the French noun formed from the adjective of the same form, meaning “flat, level, smooth”, according to Houaiss, Cunha, Nascentes and Aurélio.^[2][3][4][5] The REW also lists the Portuguese word among the borrowings of the French noun, beside Italian piatto and Spanish plato.^[6] Houaiss dates the French noun to 1119 as a general name for flat-bottomed vessels, and the adjective to about 1100.^[2]

The French adjective comes from Vulgar Latin *plattus (“flat”), which was itself taken from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “wide, broad, flat”).^[2][3][7] The Greek adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pléth₂us, from the root *pleth₂- (“flat”).^[1]

Wiktionary gives another account: it treats the word as inherited, a semi-learned form of the Vulgar Latin adjective in Old Galician-Portuguese prato.^[1] The popular Portuguese outcome of the same Latin word is chato (“flat”), with the ch- that initial pl- gives in inherited words, while prata (“silver”) comes from the feminine through Old Occitan plata (“metal plate”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record that Lorenzo's chronology gives is a Galician document of 1485 listing un prato grande d'estaño, iten un prato pequeno d'estaño “a large tin plate, also a small tin plate”; one of 1519 has dous pratos de paao “two wooden plates”.^[8][2] Both show the sense of a flat dish for food.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary of 1569 renders prato with Latin patina “dish”, and Barbosa (1611) adds a prato grande for a large serving dish.^[9][10] Morais (1789) distinguishes the large plates in which food comes to the table from the smaller ones from which it is eaten, and adds the transferred sense “dish, the food served”.^[11]

By the 19th century the word also named the pan of a balance, parts of machines shaped like a plate, and, in the plural, the pair of metal discs used as a percussion instrument.^[12][2] Houaiss adds a regional Brazilian unit of measure for grain, the base of a bulb in botany, and many phrases: prato feito for a cheap set meal in Brazil, prato de resistência for the main or most substantial dish, and prato de lentilhas for a small gain bought at a great loss.^[2] In north-eastern Brazil the prato is a dry measure of two or four litres, depending on the region.^[13]

The word passed into the Língua Geral of Amazonia as pratu (Nheengatu paratu), into Annobonese as paatu and into Bengali.^[1]

Timeline

• 1485 – un prato grande d'estaño in a Galician document.^[8]
• 1519 – dous pratos de paao “two wooden plates”.^[8]
• 1567 – the spelling platos.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary lists prato as Latin patina.^[9]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists prato and prato grande.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais defines both the plate and the dish served in it.^[11]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the balance pan and the musical cymbals.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A plate or dish: a shallow, usually round vessel of earthenware, china, metal or another material, on which food is served or eaten.^[2][5][1]
2. The contents of a plate: Comeu dois pratos de sopa.^[2][14]
3. A prepared dish; each course of a meal, especially one served between the soup and the dessert.^[2][5][1]
4. Food, fare.^[2][5]
5. The pan of a balance.^[2][5]
6. Any part of a machine shaped like a plate.^[2][15]
7. (Bahia, informal) A unit of measure for grain.^[2][13]
8. (botany) The compact base of a bulb.^[2]
9. (music) Each of a pair of round metal plates struck together as a percussion instrument; a cymbal, also a single suspended cymbal struck with a stick.^[2][1]

Word family

• prateleira
• pratada
• pratinho

Related words

• chato
• prata
• French plat
• Spanish plato

Usage notes

Queijo prato is a Brazilian cheese.^[2] Houaiss explains its name through Dutch platte (“disc-shaped”), used of the flat Flemish cheese as opposed to the round one, which is called flamengo in Portugal and queijo-do-reino in Brazil.^[2][16] Michaelis records this prato as an adjective meaning “flat”.^[17]

Prato cheio is Brazilian slang for something that gives people a reason to mock or gossip.^[2]

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 q r s t Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. prato
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. prato
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. prato
5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. prato
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6586
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. plat
8. ^ 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. prato
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. prato
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. prato
11. ^ 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, 229
12. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. prato
13. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. prato
14. ^ 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. prato
15. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7399
16. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 413
17. ^ 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. prato