raia

raia¹ ray (fish)

Etymology tree of raia¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin raia

French raie

Portuguese raia

Spanish raya

Italian raia

From the same root · raia¹

English ray ← raia

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈʁaj.ɐ/, [ˈhaɪ̯.ɐ]^[1]
• Rio-de-Janeiro: /ˈʁaj.ɐ/, [ˈχaɪ̯.ɐ]^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈʁaj.ɐ/^[1]

Forms

raia f (plural raias)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the fish is inherited from Latin raia (“ray, skate”), spelt Old Galician-Portuguese raya in the 13th century.^{[2][1][3][4][5]} Its variant arraia is recorded from 1367.^[6] Houaiss explains its ⟨a-⟩ as prosthetic, perhaps the feminine article run together with the noun.^[2][6]

The same Latin word is Spanish raya, Italian razza (from Venetian) and French raie.^[7][8] The French word was taken from Latin in the 12th century.^[9]

The OLD calls the Latin word of unknown origin.^[10] De Vaan reads it as /rajja/, from Proto-Italic *rajjā or *ragjā, and compares Middle Dutch rogghe and Old English reohhe, words for the ray in Middle Dutch and Old English; whether the English words can go back to the same form is disputed.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's Latin–Portuguese dictionary of 1562 renders the Latin raia by a raya, and his Portuguese–Latin one of 1569 gives raia for the fish.^[12][13] In Brazil the word is also a kite, the toy.^[2] Houaiss explains the name by the likeness to these fishes with their long thin tail, as Câmara Cascudo pointed out.^[2] The kite sense is recorded in Alagoas and Pernambuco.^[14]

Timeline

• 13th century – raya.^[2]
• 1367 – the variant arraya.^[6]
• 1562 – Cardoso renders the Latin raia by a raya.^[12]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary has raia.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ray or skate, a flat cartilaginous fish with wide, wing-like pectoral fins and a long tail; arraia.^[2][4][5][1]
2. (Brazil) A kite (toy); papagaio, pipa.^[2][14][1]

raia² line, border

Etymology tree of raia²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin radius

Catalan raig

French rai

Italian raggio

Italian razzo

Portuguese raio

Portuguese raia

Spanish rayo

English radius

Italian radio

From the same root · raia²

French radial ← radius

French radioactif ← radius

French radioactivité ← radius

French radiothérapie ← radius

Latin radiālis ← radius

Latin radiātus ← radius

Latin radiō ← radius

French rayon ← rai

English radial ← radius

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈʁaj.ɐ/, [ˈhaɪ̯.ɐ]^[1]
• Rio-de-Janeiro: /ˈʁaj.ɐ/, [ˈχaɪ̯.ɐ]^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈʁaj.ɐ/^[1]

Forms

raia f (plural raias)^[1]

Etymology

The word for a line or border is, for Houaiss and Cunha, a feminine formed from Portuguese raio (“ray; spoke”) + -a.^[2][15][1] The masculine noun is from Latin radius (“staff; spoke of a wheel; ray of light”).^[16][15] Nascentes, Aurélio and Michaelis derive the noun instead from Vulgar Latin *radia, formed on the Latin word because spokes and rays are straight lines.^[3][5][17] Wiktionary weighs both and calls the origin uncertain, and the DLP says only that it perhaps comes from the Latin word.^[1][4] Houaiss records the form arraia with a prosthetic ⟨a-⟩ in the 15th century.^[6]

The same word is Galician raia.^[18] For Spanish raya “line”, which Corominas and Pascual find from 1288, they suggest the same origin, while the DLE derives it from Late Latin radia.^[19][20] De Vaan finds no clear etymology for the Latin word and thinks it unlikely to be related to rādīx (“root”).^[21]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cantiga d'amigo, undated in the glossaries, already uses raia for the first light of the sun: quando saía la raia / do sol nas ribas do Sar “when the sun's first ray came out on the banks of the Sar”.^[22][23] In prose the word is first recorded in the 15th century as araya “frontier”, and as raia in 1567, in the sense “line of demarcation”.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates the sense “stroke, line” to the 17th century.^[2] Morais (1789) gives the lines of the hand, the lines drawn in ink or chalk for some games, a boundary or frontier, and figuratively the limits of something.^[24] The adjective raiano “of the border” is first recorded in Aulete's dictionary of 1881.^[25]

Modern technical senses include the grooves of a rifled barrel, the lanes of a swimming pool and the dark lines of the solar spectrum.^[2][5] In Brazil it is a straight racecourse for horses, especially in the south, where fugir da raia means to dodge a fight.^[26][27][2] Popular speech in Portugal uses it for a blunder.^[4][1]

Timeline

• 15th century – the prosthetic form araya “frontier”.^[6]
• 1567 – raia “line of demarcation”.^[2]
• 1594–c. 1595 – the spelling raya.^[2]
• 17th century – first record of the sense “stroke, line”.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais lists the lines of the hand, game lines, a frontier.^[24]
• 1881 – raiano is first recorded in Aulete's dictionary.^[25]

Meanings

Noun

1. A line, stroke or stripe: uma camisa às raias azuis.^{[2][28][29][1]}
2. A line on the palm of the hand.^[2][4][5]
3. One of the spiral grooves inside the barrel of a firearm; rifling.^[2]
4. A boundary line; especially the frontier of a country, or the border region.^[2][4][5][1]
5. (figurative) A limit; the furthest point of something: tocar as raias de “to verge on”.^[2][28][1]
6. A lane of a swimming pool or of a running track.^[2][29]
7. (Brazil) A straight racecourse for horses.^[2][26][27]
8. (billiards) A stroke that hits the opponent's ball instead of one's own.^[2]
9. (southern Brazil) A countermark branded on a horse to cancel its brand.^[2][17]
10. (physics) A spectral line;^[2] raias de Fraunhofer.^[2][5]
11. (Portugal, popular) A blunder, a silly mistake.^[4][1]

Word family

• raiano