quaresma

Forms

quaresma f (plural quaresmas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin quadrāgēsima (“Lent”), through a shortened Vulgar Latin *quaraēsima, and was written Old Galician-Portuguese quaraesma and Old Galician-Portuguese quareesma in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun is short for a phrase meaning “the fortieth day”, and is the feminine of Latin quadrāgēsimus (“fortieth”), from quadrāgintā (“forty”).^[5][6][1] The Church use follows Ancient Greek τεσσαρακοστή (tessarakostḗ), the term of the Greek Church.^[7]

The same Latin word is Galician coresma, Spanish cuaresma, Catalan quaresma, French carême, Italian quaresima and Romanian păresimi.^[8][9] Nascentes reports Nunes's view that the comparison with the other Romance languages points to the loss of the /d/ already in popular Latin.^[9] The popular Old Galician-Portuguese coresma appears in the 15th century and is still heard in Portugal and Brazil;^[3][5][10] Nascentes calls the standard form a remade word.^[3][5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date, 1209, is the phrase ferias de quaresma “weekdays of Lent” in a text of the Leges volume of the Portugaliae Monumenta Historica.^[2][11] A notarial document of 1242–1252 mentions o uino de quaraesma “the Lent wine”, and one before 1257 rules that in Advent and Lent a woman must have pixotas et sardinas, fish and sardines.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word names the forty days of fasting before Easter.^[11] The Crónica Geral of 1344 writes quareesma (teue hy a quareesma), and the Corónica de Iria has coreesma and an indulgence of viinte et oito quoresmas “twenty-eight Lents”.^[11] Bluteau (1712–1728) explains it as forty-six days without meat between Shrove Tuesday and Easter Sunday, of which forty are fasting days, the Sundays excepted.^[12] In Brazil the name passed to plants that flower in Lent: the flor-da-quaresma or quaresmeira, with purple flowers, and a palm and its fruit.^[2][5][13] In Portugal it names a white-flowered saxifrage.^[14][13] The word was borrowed into Konkani.^[1]

Timeline

• 1209 – ferias de quaresma in the Leges of the Portugaliae Monumenta Historica.^[2][11]
• 1242–1252 – de quaraesma in a notarial document.^[4]
• 1344 – quareesma in the Crónica Geral de Espanha.^[11]
• 1365 – the form correesma.^[2]
• 15th century – the popular form coresma.^[3]
• 1542 – coresma in a private letter.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses quaresma with Latin quadragesima.^[16]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the forty-six days of abstinence.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais: the forty days of fasting from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Christianity, usually capitalised) Lent, the forty days of penance from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday.^{[2][18][6][1]}
2. (Brazil, botany) The flor-da-quaresma or quaresmeira, a tree with purple flowers that bloom in Lent.^[2][18][10]
3. (Portugal, botany) A white-flowered saxifrage, or its flower.^[14][19]
4. (Brazil, botany) A palm of Brazil, and its fruit.^[19][13]

Word family

• quaresmal
• quaresmeira

Related words

• quadragésima
• quarenta
• Latin quadrāgēsima
• Spanish cuaresma

Usage notes

In Amazonia quaresma, masculine or feminine, is an informal word for a liar;^[18][13] Aurélio and the old Caldas Aulete derive it, with a question mark, from the surname Quaresma.^[18][13] The surname itself began as a byname: Nascentes reports that a Rui Vasques Mogudo got this name for the devotion with which he kept Lent.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. quaresma
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. quaresma
4. ^ 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. quaraesma
5. ^ a b c d Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. quaresma
6. ^ 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. quaresma
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. carême
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6911
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. 425
10. ^ a b c 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. quaresma
11. ^ a b c d e 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. quaresma
12. ^ 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. quaresma
13. ^ a b c d e 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. quaresma
14. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7633
15. ^ 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. quaresma
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. quaresma
17. ^ 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, 270
18. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. quaresma
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. quaresma
20. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. quaresma