romã

Forms

romã f (plural romãs)^[1] Old spellings are romãa and rromãa, with the plural romaas in the 15th century.^[2][3] Bluteau (1712) heads the word româa, Vieira gives romã and romãa, and a letter of 1701 writes romam.^[4][5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rōmāna (“Roman”), with mala (“apples”) understood: the fruit was called the “Roman apple”.^[2][7][8][9] The oldest texts write Old Galician-Portuguese romãa.^[3][1] The REW lists the sense “pomegranate” of the Latin adjective for Portuguese alone.^[10] The Latin adjective is formed from Rōma (“Rome”) with the suffix -ānus.^[11][1]

Others see an Arabic origin: Corriente, Pereira and Vicente derive the word from Arabic رُمَّانَة (rummāna) by way of Andalusian Arabic, and the Arabic word goes back through Syriac and Ugaritic to Akkadian.^[12] DELPo and the original Caldas Aulete also derive it from Arabic.^[13][14] Wiktionary combines the two views: the Arabic name was matched with the Latin adjective.^[1] The debate is old: Bluteau reports that Duarte Nunes do Leão derived the word from a Hebrew or Syriac word through Arabic, while Manuel de Faria suggested that the Romans had brought the fruit to Spain.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1377, lists the fruits of a place: a saber Romãas e laranjas e limõões “that is, pomegranates and oranges and lemons”.^[3] Houaiss and Cunha also date the word to the 14th century.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the fruit, and by extension the tree.^[2] Bluteau (1712) distinguishes sour, sweet and bittersweet pomegranates and quotes Camões.^[4] The tree was later named romãzeira, first recorded in 1813 as romanzeira.^[15] Sailors called the thickest part of a mast or topmast, where the supports of the top rest, the romã.^[2][7][16] Michaelis and Houaiss also record an old sense, a firework used on board ship.^[17][2]

Timeline

• 1377 – Romãas e laranjas e limõões.^[3]
• 14th century – the spellings rromãas and rromãos.^[2]
• 15th century – the spelling romaas.^[2]
• 1701 – romam in a private letter.^[6]
• 1712 – Bluteau heads the word româa and discusses its origin.^[4]
• 1813 – first record of romanzeira, the tree.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. pomegranate, the fruit of the romãzeira, with a leathery rind and many seeds in a juicy, sweet-sour pulp.^[2][16][1]
2. The pomegranate tree.^[2][14]
3. The flower of the pomegranate tree.^[2]
4. (nautical) The thickest part of a mast (mastro) or topmast, where the supports of the top rest.^[2][18][19]
5. (nautical, historical) A firework used on board ship.^[2][17]

Word family

• romãzeira

Related words

• romano
• Latin rōmānus

Usage notes

Romã is also the feminine of the old adjective and noun romão “Roman”; the original Caldas Aulete quotes na carónica romã from the Livro da Montaria of King João I.^[14][17][1] Houaiss lists the regional names milgrã, milgrada, milgranada, miligrã and mirgã for the fruit.^[2]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. romã
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. romãa
4. ^ a b c d Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. româa
5. ^ 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, 327
6. ^ a b 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. romã
7. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. romã
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. romã
9. ^ 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. romã
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7371
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. romã
13. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. romã
14. ^ 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. romã
15. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. romãzeira
16. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. romã
17. ^ 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. romã
18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8162
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. romã