racimo

Forms

racimo m (plural racimos)^[1] The medieval form was rrazimo;^[2] Houaiss records the plural rrazimos in the 14th century and racimos in 1688.^[3][4][1] Houaiss and Aulete treat racimo as a less preferred variant of racemo.^[1][2][5] Porto Editora transcribes it [ʀɐˈsimu].^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin racimus (“bunch of grapes”), the popular form of Latin racēmus, written Old Galician-Portuguese rrazimo in the 14th century.^[1][4][7][3] The form with ⟨i⟩ is recorded in the second half of the 6th century in Gregory the Great and in later glosses; the reason for the vowel is unclear, but all the Romance languages continue it rather than the classical ⟨e⟩.^[8][9]

The ⟨z⟩ of the medieval form is the regular outcome of Latin ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ between vowels, as in prazer and vezes;^[10] Williams explains the ⟨c⟩ of the modern spelling as a regression towards Latin, since the medieval language has razimo.^[10] Corominas, who knew no record earlier than the sermons of Vieira (about 1675), took the modern form for a borrowing from Spanish, less popular in Portugal than cacho.^[9] DELPo compares the Spanish word, and Wikcionário derives the Portuguese one from it.^[11][12]

The same Latin word is Spanish racimo (13th century), Catalan raïm, Occitan rasim and French raisin;^[9][8] Italian replaced it with the diminutive Italian racimolo.^[9][8] The Latin word is probably a loanword from a Mediterranean language, related to Ancient Greek ῥάξ (rháx, “grape”).^[13][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 14th-century Crónica Troiana the word names the tines of a stag's antlers: a beast “carried seven tines raised on its horns” (tragia en seus cornos sete rrazimos alçados).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Feijó (1734) and Morais (1789) define racimo as a bunch of grapes.^[14][15] Vieira (1871–1874) presents it as a term of botany, a group of flowers or fruits arranged like a bunch, and only then a bunch of grapes.^[16] The modern dictionaries keep both senses, and the botanical one is usually given under the learned racemo.^[17][6][1]

Timeline

• 14th century – rrazimos “tines” in the Crónica Troiana.^[3][1][4]
• c. 1675 – racimo in the sermons of Vieira, the first record Corominas knew.^[9]
• 1688 – the plural racimos.^[1]
• 1734 – Feijó glosses racîmo as a bunch of grapes.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as a bunch of grapes.^[15]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira's dictionary gives it as a term of botany.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bunch of grapes.^[18][17][6]
2. (botany) A cluster of flowers or fruits; a raceme (racemo).^[1][19][17]

Related words

• Latin racēmus
• Spanish racimo
• Catalan raïm

Usage notes

Corominas notes that the everyday Portuguese word for a bunch of grapes is cacho.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. racimo
2. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. racemo
3. ^ 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. rrazimo
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. racimo
5. ^ 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. racimo
6. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7723
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. racimo
8. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
9. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 746
10. ^ a b Williams, Edwin B. (1938), From Latin to Portuguese: Historical Phonology and Morphology of the Portuguese Language, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, p. § 73
11. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. racimo
12. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. racimo
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. racimo
15. ^ 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, 280
16. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 65
17. ^ a b c 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. racimo
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. racimo
19. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. racimo