ribeira

Forms

ribeira f (plural ribeiras)^[1] Old spellings include rribeira, rrybeyra (1392) and ribeyra.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Medieval Latin rīpāria, written Old Galician-Portuguese ribeira in the oldest texts.^[2][1][5] The Latin word is the feminine of rīpārius (“of the river bank”), used as a noun, and the adjective is formed from rīpa (“river bank”).^[2][6][1] A Latin charter of 1021 already has the Latin form.^[2] The DLP and Aurélio also allow a formation within Portuguese, from Portuguese riba + -eira.^[7][8] Vieira's derivation from the French word is of his time.^[9]

The same Latin word is Galician ribeira, Spanish ribera, Catalan ribera, Occitan ribèra and Old French riviere, modern French rivière.^[10][11][1]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *reipā- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁reip-h₂- (“steep slope”) for the Latin noun, with the cognates Ancient Greek ἐρείπω (ereípō, “to throw down”), ἐρίπνη (erípnē, “slope”) and Old Norse rífa (“to tear down”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria a woman morava en Frandes, preto do mar, na ribeira “lived in Flanders, near the sea, on the shore”, and another cantiga has na ribeira / dun rio “on the bank of a river”.^[3] The cantigas d'amigo use it for the shore of the sea or a river, and the Miragres de Santiago have ẽna rribeira do rrio “on the river bank”.^[3][13]

Semantic evolution

From “bank, shore” the word passed to the low, wet land beside a river and to the stream itself, smaller than a river and larger than a brook.^[2] Bluteau (1712) describes it as low, cool land next to a stream, and adds ribeiras of vines or orchards, so called even where there is no stream.^[4] Folqman (1755) gives the fish market by the river and a ribeira das náos, the yard where ships were built and repaired, a sense the dictionaries now mark as old.^[14][2][15]

In north-eastern Brazil a ribeira is a rural district of cattle ranches, each district named after the river that waters it and with a brand common to all its ranches.^[16][17] Beaurepaire-Rohan records it in 1889, and Houaiss dates it to 1899.^[16][2][17] In Portugal, and in the Azores, ribeira is any stream, and it names many places (Ribeira Grande, Ribeira Seca).^[18]

Timeline

• 1021 – riparia in a Latin charter.^[2]
• 13th century – ribeira “shore, bank” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the cantigas d'amigo.^[3][2]
• 1392 – the spelling rrybeyra.^[2]
• 1416 – first record in the CTA, in the Vida do Cativo Monge Confesso.^[19]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses ribeira, ou ribeiro with Latin rivus.^[20]
• 1712 – Bluteau describes the riverside land and the ribeiras of vines.^[4]
• 1755 – Folqman lists the fish market and the shipyard.^[14]
• 1889 – Beaurepaire-Rohan records the cattle district of north-eastern Brazil.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. Low land along the banks of a river, often flooded by it.^[2][8][1]
2. Low land flooded by the waters of a river or the sea.^[2][21]
3. A stream larger than a brook and smaller than a river; a small river, a ribeiro.^[2][15][1]
4. (Portugal) A fish market near a river or quay.^[2][21]
5. (historical) The part of a river bank where ships were built or repaired; a shipyard.^[2][15]
6. (north-eastern Brazil) A rural district of several cattle ranches (fazendas).^[2][17][1]

Word family

• ribeirinho

Related words

• ribeiro
• riba
• arriba
• ripário
• Galician ribeira
• Spanish ribera
• Latin rīpa

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ribeira
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. ribeira
4. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ribeira
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ribeira
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ 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. ribeira
8. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ribeira
9. ^ 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, 295
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 443
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ 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. ribeira
14. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ribeira
15. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ribeira
16. ^ a b c Beaurepaire-Rohan, Henrique de (1889), Diccionario de vocabulos brazileiros, Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, p. s.v. ribeira
17. ^ a b c Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. ribeira
18. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. ribeira
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ribeira
20. ^ 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. ribeira
21. ^ a b 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. ribeira