relógio

Forms

relógio m (plural relógios)^[1] Houaiss records relogeo (1416), rellogios and relogyo (15th century), relojo (1589) and relójio (1858).^[2] Bluteau heads the word relôgio.^[3]

Etymology

In Houaiss's view it comes from Latin hōrologium (“sundial, water clock”), through an aphetic form *rologium of the Vulgar Latin of Hispania that Machado proposed.^[2] Nascentes and Aurélio also derive it from the Latin word, with the loss of its first ⟨o⟩ and a dissimilation of the next.^[4][5] Wiktionary and the DLP instead take it from Spanish reloj, and the REW derives the Spanish word, and the Portuguese one through it, from Catalan rellotge.^[1][6][7]

Corominas traces the Spanish word, first recorded about 1400, to Old Catalan relotge, whose older forms orollotge and arelotge stand closer to the Latin; mechanical clocks with wheels and weights are mentioned in Catalonia in the 14th and 15th centuries.^[8][9] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ὡρολόγιον (hōrológion), from ὡρολόγος (hōrológos), a compound of ὥρα (hṓra, “hour”) and λέγω (légō, “to count, tell”).^[1][10]

Other forms of the Latin word are Galician reloxo, Occitan relòtge, Italian orologio and French horloge.^[1][7] The learned horológio is a doublet.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is relogeo in a document of 1416.^[2] In Latin the word meant a sundial or a water clock.^[10] Houaiss's first sense is a mechanism that marks the time and shows the hours.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) has relogio de sol “sundial” and relogio de agoa “water clock”.^[11] Bluteau (1712–1728) explains the word from Greek and tells the history of the sundial.^[3] Morais (1813) defines the clock as a machine of wheels, weights and springs that moves a pointer.^[12]

In Brazil relógio is also a meter for water, gas or electricity, and informally the stomach, a person who works with great regularity, a plant of the genus Sida and a capoeira movement.^[2] Caldas Aulete and Michaelis record a lasting ailment left by an illness.^[13][14] In Bahia the word names a slow-moving freshwater turtle.^[15] Tetum borrowed it as relójiu.^[1]

Timeline

• 1416 – first record, spelt relogeo.^[2]
• 15th century – the spellings rellogios and relogyo.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders relogio with Latin horologium.^[16]
• 1589 – the variant relojo.^[2][17]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists the sundial and the water clock.^[11]
• 1757 – a private letter writes rellogio.^[18]
• 1813 – Morais describes the clock with its wheels, weights and springs.^[12]
• 1858 – the spelling relójio.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A clock or watch, any instrument for measuring time and showing the hours: O relógio da estação parou.^[2][5][1]
2. (Brazil) A meter for water, gas or electricity.^[2][13]
3. (figurative, informal) A person who works with great regularity.^[2]
4. (figurative, informal) The stomach.^[2][14]
5. (botany) A woody herb of the mallow family (Sida), used in folk medicine against indigestion.^[2][13]
6. (capoeira) A movement in which the body spins parallel to the ground, supported on one hand.^[2]

Word family

• relojoeiro
• relojoaria
• rádio-relógio

Related words

• horologia
• horológio
• Latin hōrologium
• Spanish reloj

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 f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. relógio
3. ^ 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. relógio
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. relógio
5. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. relógio
6. ^ 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. relógio
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4183
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 869
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. reloj
10. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. hōrologium
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. relogio
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 591
13. ^ 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. relógio
14. ^ 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. relógio
15. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. relógio
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. relogio
17. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. relojo
18. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. relógio