quinta

Forms

quinta f (plural quintas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote quintáá (1192), quintaa (1220) and quintãa (1261).^[2][3] The spelling quinta is recorded from the 16th century.^[3][4]

Etymology

Houaiss, Cunha, Wiktionary and the DLP agree that it is inherited from Latin quintāna, written Old Galician-Portuguese quintãa in the oldest texts.^[3][4][1][5] In a Roman camp the Latin word named the street beside the fifth maniple where the market was held; it is the feminine of quintānus, from quintus (“fifth”).^[6][1] Medieval Latin already used it for a country seat or manor.^[7] Corominas notes the word in Galician and Asturian documents of 969 and 976.^[8] Nascentes explains the shape of the Portuguese word: the old form contracted to one ending in a stressed nasal vowel, which Portuguese did not keep, and the stress moved back to the first syllable.^[9]

Others derive it from the feminine of the ordinal quinto, after the fifth part of the crop that a tenant paid to the landlord, the name passing to the estate itself: so Bluteau, Nascentes in 1966 and Aurélio.^[10][11][12] The glossary of the Rianxo documents agrees, and dates the first use of quinta as a noun to a Portuguese document of 1192.^[13]

In Spanish, Corominas calls Spanish quintana archaic and regional, and records quinta for the fifth part of the crop that a tenant paid to the owner of a farm.^[8] The French outcome of the Latin word is French quintaine “quintain”.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A document of 1192 speaks of outro casal en Agiar que chamam quintáá “another farmstead at Agiar that they call quintáá”.^[2] Houaiss's first date, 1199, from Machado, is for the sense “rural property”.^[3] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria so many people came to a church that they did not even fit in the quintãa.^[15]

Semantic evolution

Viterbo treats quintãa and quintana as the same as quinta, citing a document of 1396.^[16] Cardoso (1569) and Pereira (1697) render the word with Latin villa, the country house with its farm.^[17][18] Bluteau defines it as a country house, or a farm in the country with its buildings.^[10] Wiktionary gives first the sense “wine-producing estate”.^[1]

Regional senses grew up: an orange grove in the Azores, a group of houses of different owners within a parish in Trás-os-Montes.^[3][5] In Brazil the word is little used for an estate, and Schlee records it in Rio Grande do Sul for a plot of vegetables and fruit trees near a town.^[12][19] Informal speech has used it for a hospital in Brazil and for an infirmary for prostitutes in Portugal.^[3][20]

Separately, quinta is also short for quinta-feira “Thursday”, recorded from the 15th century.^[3][5][1]

Timeline

• 969 – Corominas notes the Latin word in a Galician document, and in an Asturian one of 976.^[8]
• 1192 – quintáá in a Portuguese document.^[2]
• 1199 – Houaiss's first date for the sense “rural property”.^[3]
• 1220 – the spelling quintaa.^[2]
• 1261 – the spelling quintãa.^[2]
• 1396 – a document cited by Viterbo has quintãa.^[16]
• 15th century – quinta is used for quinta-feira “Thursday”.^[3]
• 1554–1583 – the modern spelling quinta.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin villa.^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau explains the name by the fifth of the crop paid by the tenant.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A country estate; a rural property with a dwelling house: Passam o verão numa quinta perto de Viseu.^[3][5][1]
2. A wine-producing estate, a vineyard with its winery.^[1]
3. A piece of cultivated land; a farm, a smallholding.^[3][21][1]
4. (Azores) An orange grove.^[3][1]
5. (Trás-os-Montes) A group of houses of different owners forming part of a parish.^[3][5]
6. (Rio Grande do Sul) A plot for vegetables and fruit trees.^[19]
7. (Brazil, informal) A hospital.^[3]

Word family

• quinteiro

Related words

• quinto
• quinta-feira
• Spanish quintana

Usage notes

Estar nas suas sete quintas means to be perfectly content.^[3][22][5]

The musical interval of a fifth, a parry in fencing and a run of five cards are also called quinta: this is the feminine of the ordinal, dated by Houaiss to 1652.^[3][20] Houaiss and Aurélio also record a Brazilian quinta “a long fit of coughing”, of obscure origin.^[3][12]

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 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. quintaa
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. quinta
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. quinto
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. quinta
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. quintāna
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. quintana
8. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 84
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 429
10. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. quinta
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. quinta
12. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. quinta
13. ^ 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. quinta
14. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. quintaine
15. ^ 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. quintãa
16. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 258
17. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. quinta
18. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. quinta
19. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. quinta
20. ^ 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. quinta
21. ^ 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. quinta
22. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. quinta