raiz

Forms

raiz f (plural raízes)^[1] Medieval texts write raiz, rayz and rays, and in the 14th century also rrayz, reyz and rreyz.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rādīx (“root”), written Old Galician-Portuguese raiz in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The earliest form Houaiss records, ⟨radize⟩ in a document of 1091, still has the Latin ⟨d⟩ between vowels, which the 13th-century form has lost.^[2] Old Spanish shows the same pair: Berceo has Old Spanish raíz beside the older radiz.^[4]

The same Latin word is Galician raíz, Spanish raíz, Catalan rel, Italian radice and Old French raïz, which survives in French only in the compound French raifort “horseradish”.^[5][6][4]

The Latin word goes back to *wrādīks, from Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds.^[1] De Vaan compares Welsh gwraidd (“roots”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍄𐍃 (waurts) and Old English wyrt, and thinks the ⟨-d-⟩ of the root was probably a suffix.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century use raiz for the roots of plants, in a line about a cure that works nen con raizes nen frores “neither with roots nor with flowers”, and figuratively in rayz de Jesse, the root of Jesse; the phrase de raiz there means “from the very start”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “origin, cause” is old: Houaiss dates it to the 14th century.^[2] A cantiga already opposes movil e raiz, movable and immovable goods, and Morais (1813) records bens de raiz “real estate” as opposed to movable property, a sense Houaiss still lists.^[9][10][2]

Later centuries added technical senses: the root of a tooth, a hair or a nerve, the root of a word in grammar and of a number in mathematics.^[2][11] In the plural the word also means the ties with the place where one grew up.^[2][1] Recent Brazilian slang uses raiz as an adjective for something traditional or authentic.^[1][12]

The word passed into the Portuguese-based creoles: Kabuverdianu raìs, Guinea-Bissau Creole rais and Papiamentu rais.^[1]

Timeline

• 1091 – radize in a document cited by Machado.^[2]
• 13th century – raiz, rayz in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[8][3]
• 14th century – first record of the figurative sense “origin, source”.^[2]
• 1430 – the Horto do Esposo is the first text in the CTA corpus with the word.^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa's dictionary has de raiz “from the roots” and deitar raizes “to take root”.^[14]
• 1813 – Morais records bens de raiz “real estate”.^[10]
• 1836 – first record of the verb enraizar “to take root”.^[3]
• 1881 – first record of desenraizar “to uproot”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) root, the part of a plant that grows down into the soil, holds it fast and takes in water and nutrients.^[2][15][1]
2. The lower part or base of something: a raiz da colina.^[2][16]
3. (anatomy, dentistry) The part by which an organ or structure is fixed in a tissue: the root of a tooth, of a hair, of a nail.^[2][16][1]
4. (figurative) origin, cause, source: É preciso atacar a raiz do problema.^[2][11][1]
5. (figurative, usually in the plural) Emotional ties with the place or culture where one grew up.^[2][1]
6. (grammar, linguistics) The base element of a word, left when all affixes are removed; in historical grammar, the reconstructed form from which later words descend.^[2][1]
7. (mathematics) The root of a number, or a value that satisfies an equation: raiz quadrada, raiz cúbica.^[2][1]
8. The hard wood of the roots of some trees, used to make objects such as pipes.^[2][11]

Adjective

1. (Brazil, slang) Traditional, authentic, true to the old way.^[1][12]

Word family

• enraizar
• desenraizar
• raizame
• raizedo
• raizento
• raiz-amarga
• raigota

Related words

• radical
• radicar
• radícula
• erradicar
• Latin rādīx
• Galician raíz

Usage notes

The phrase cortar o mal pela raiz means to stop an evil at its source.^[1][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. raiz
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. raiz
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 755
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. raifort
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b 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. raiz
9. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. raiz
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 548
11. ^ a b c 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. raiz
12. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. raiz
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. raiz
14. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. raiz
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. raiz
16. ^ a b 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. raiz
17. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7745