regra

Forms

regra f (plural regras)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had regla beside regra and rregra (13th–14th centuries), and rregoa and regua in the sense of the instrument.^[2][3][4] Regla is found in Portuguese texts until the 15th century and is still heard in Galicia.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rēgula (“straight stick, ruler; rule”), written Old Galician-Portuguese regla and Old Galician-Portuguese regra in the oldest texts.^[4][2][5][3] Wiktionary treats it as semi-learned, and the Latin cluster /gl/ became /gr/, as the old form shows.^[1][5] Houaiss names three Portuguese words of the same origin that took different shapes and senses: this word, régua “ruler” and relha “ploughshare”, the last of them the fully popular outcome.^[4][1]

Spanish has regla, recorded from 967, beside the popular Spanish reja “ploughshare”.^[6][7] In other Romance languages the popular forms survive with the sense “bar, rod”, as Old French reille.^[8][1]

The Latin noun is formed from the root of regō (“to direct, rule”) with the diminutive suffix -ula.^[4][1][9] De Vaan derives the verb from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to stretch, direct”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria tell of a nun who was very beautiful e tĩia ben quant' en regla jaz “and kept well all that lies in the rule”: the first sense is the rule of a monastic order.^[3] The Miragres de Santiago too speak of taking a rregla de San Bieito, the Rule of Saint Benedict.^[3] Viterbo records that in Latin documents of the 9th and 10th centuries a monastery itself was called a Regra, because its monks lived under a rule.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Geral of 1344 already has the general sense of order and discipline, andãdo ssem rregra “going about without rule or good order”.^[3] Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as a precept or principle of an art or science by which one guides one's actions.^[12] Morais (1789) adds the rules of reasoning, speaking, writing and arithmetic, and the rule as what law or custom lays down, opposed to the exception.^[13] Folqman (1755) records a line of writing.^[14] Today the word also means moderation and method, and the plural regras is a popular word for menstruation.^[4][15][16] In north-eastern Brazil regras is informal for idle talk or tall tales.^[4]

Timeline

• 13th century – regla in the Cantigas de Santa Maria;^[3][4] Houaiss also dates regra to this century.^[3][4]
• 14th century – regra and rregra;^[2] regular first recorded.^[2]
• 1344 – the Crónica Geral has ssem rregra.^[3]
• 15th century – desregrar first recorded.^[2]
• 1416 – regra in the Vida do Cativo Monge Confesso.^[17]
• 1697 – Pereira translates it with Latin regula, norma and canon.^[18]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as a precept of an art or science.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais opposes the rule to the exception.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rule: what regulates or governs; a principle, norm or precept.^[4][5][1]
2. A formula for the correct way of speaking, reasoning or acting in a given case: as regras do xadrez.^[4][5]
3. What law or custom lays down: Chegar tarde não é a regra aqui.^[4][5][15]
4. (religion) The statutes of a religious order.^[4][19]
5. Moderation, method: comer com regra.^[4][20]
6. Each of the lines of ruled paper.^[4][19]
7. (rare) A ruler (régua).^[4][15]
8. A model, an example.^[4][19]
9. (in the plural, popular) menstruation.^[4][15]
10. (north-eastern Brazil, informal, in the plural) Idle talk, tall tales.^[4]

Word family

• desregrado
• desregramento
• desregrar
• regrado
• regrar

Related words

• régua
• relha
• regular
• irregular
• regulamento
• Latin rēgula
• Spanish regla

Usage notes

Regra de três is the rule of three in arithmetic, the calculation of an unknown term from three known ones.^[4][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. regra
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. regla
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. regra
5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. regra
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. regla
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. reja
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7177
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. rēgula
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. regō
11. ^ 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, 279
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. regra
13. ^ 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, 312
14. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. regra
15. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7933
16. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. regra
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. regra
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. regra
19. ^ a b c 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. regra
20. ^ 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. regra