proa

Forms

proa f (plural proas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin prōra (“prow”), a word borrowed from Ancient Greek πρῷρα (prôira, “forepart of a ship”).^[2][3][4][1] The second /r/ was lost by dissimilation, as Nascentes and Aurélio say.^[5][6][7] Houaiss and Cunha think the form owes something to Old Occitan proa, and Cunha also names the dialectal Italian proa.^[2][3]

The same form is Spanish proa and Catalan proa, and Genoese had that form in the 13th century.^[8][9] Italian has prua, and French proue, which the DHLF takes as probably a loan from Genoese.^[9][10] Corominas derives the Spanish word from an old Romance form with the second /r/ dissimilated to /d/, kept in Italian proda.^[11] Meyer-Lübke rejects the idea that the Genoese form with -r- dropped is the source of the forms without /r/, since they appear before that loss took place.^[8]

The Greek word is traced to Proto-Indo-European *préh₃wr̥yh₂ (“forepart of a ship”), related to the preposition meaning “before, forward”.^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 14th century, from Cunha.^[2][3] R. Lorenzo's chronology quotes a 14th-century text: vio na proa da nao aquele homem “he saw that man in the prow of the ship”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense “front of a ship”, which Cardoso (1569) renders with Latin prora.^[13][2] Morais (1789) adds pôr proa a “to head for” and the figurative “aim, intent”.^[14] It was extended to the front of any thing, and figuratively to pride and conceit, a sense also recorded in the dialects of Portugal.^[2][6][15] As a masculine noun it names the rower in the bow, and in Brazil the fisherman who handles the sail of a jangada.^[2][16]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records;^[12][3] na proa da nao.^[12][3]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary has proa, Latin prora.^[13]
• 1615 – a private letter spells it proha.^[17]
• 1789 – Morais records pôr proa a “to head towards”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) The bow or prow of a boat or ship, the end opposite the stern (popa): O vento batia na proa do barco.^[2][18][1]
2. The front part of anything.^[6][18]
3. (figurative) pride, vanity, conceit.^[2][6][19]
4. (masculine, nautical) The rower in the bow; proeiro.^[2][6]

Word family

• aproar
• emproado
• emproar
• proeiro

Related words

• Latin prōra
• Spanish proa

Usage notes

Set phrases include de proa “head-on, from the front”, fazer proa “to head in a direction” (also aproar) and abrir de proa “to cast off bow first”.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. proa
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. proa
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. prōra
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. proa
6. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. proa
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. proa
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6784
9. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. prua
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. proue
11. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 657
12. ^ a b c 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. proa
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. proa
14. ^ 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, 246
15. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. proa
16. ^ 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. proa
17. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. proa
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. proa
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. proa