sabão

Forms

sabão m (plural sabões)^[1] The 14th-century spelling is sabon, sabão appears in the 15th century, and xabão in the 16th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sāpō (“soap”), written Old Galician-Portuguese sabon in the 14th century.^[2][3][1][4]

The same Latin word is Galician xabón, Spanish jabón, Catalan sabó, French savon, Italian sapone and Romanian săpun.^[5][1] For the x- (later j-) of Spanish, the DCECH suggests the influence of the verb xabonar or enxabonar, which may continue Vulgar Latin *exsapōnō.^[6]

Pliny calls this substance an invention of the Gauls for reddening the hair.^[7] Houaiss, the DCECH and the DHLF take the Latin word from Proto-Germanic *saipǭ, and the DHLF thinks it first named a substance for dyeing the hair.^[2][6][8][1] Kluge accepts it as a loanword, probably from Germanic, though he notes that its sounds do not quite fit.^[9] Nascentes leaves open whether it is Celtic or Germanic.^[4]

The Germanic word, the source of Old High German seifa and Old English sāpe, is itself obscure: Kluge and Pfeifer note that the Old English and Old High German words also meant “resin”, and connect them with verbs meaning “to drip, trickle”.^[9][10] Wiktionary takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *seyb- (“to pour out, drip”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 14th century, spelt sabon.^[2][3] Cunha records ssaboarya “soap works” in the same century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso in 1569 and Barbosa in 1611 translate it with Latin sapo, and Pereira in 1697 adds smegma.^[11][12][13] Silva Bastos in 1912 has the familiar sense “a reminder, a scolding”.^[14] In Brazil the word also means slippery ground and a decomposed rock under the soil in parts of the north-east, especially in Piauí.^[2][3][15] In Rio Grande do Sul it named a figure of the fandango.^[16]

Through Portuguese trade the word spread to Asia and Brazil: Wiktionary lists Japanese シャボン (shabon), Malay sabun and Nheengatu sabãu among its descendants, with others in the languages of India and Sri Lanka.^[1] The derivative sabonete “toilet soap” is recorded from the 16th century, ensaboar “to soap” and saboeiro from 1813, and saboneteira “soap dish” from 1881.^[3]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records, spelt sabon, and ssaboarya “soap works”.^[2][3]
• 15th century – the spelling sabão.^[2]
• 16th century – the spelling xabão, and the derivative sabonete.^[2][3]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it with Latin sapo.^[11]
• 1697 – Pereira gives Latin sapo and smegma.^[13]
• 1813 – first record of ensaboar and saboeiro.^[3]
• 1881 – first record of saboneteira.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. soap, a cleaning substance made from fatty acids and salts of sodium or potassium, used with water: Lavou a roupa com sabão azul.^[2][16][1]
2. A bar or cake of soap.^[2][17]
3. (Brazil) Slippery ground.^[2][16]
4. (informal) A scolding, a dressing-down: levar um sabão.^[2][16][17]
5. (Brazil) A partly decomposed rock that forms the subsoil in parts of the north-east, especially in Piauí.^[2][3][15]
6. (botany) A soapberry tree, Sapindus divaricatus, also called saboeiro.^[2][15]
7. (Rio Grande do Sul) A figure of the fandango.^[16]

Word family

• ensaboar
• saboaria
• saboeiro
• sabonete
• saboneteira

Related words

• saponáceo
• saponificar
• Latin sāpō
• Spanish jabón
• Galician xabón

Usage notes

Houaiss, Aurélio and the DLP also record a jocular noun sabão “a great scholar, a know-all”, formed on the stem of sábio (or saber) with the augmentative suffix -ão, a synonym of sabichão.^[2][16][18]

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. sabão
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sabão
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sabão
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7589
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 476
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sāpō
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. savon
9. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 840
10. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de, p. s.v. seife
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sabão
12. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sabão
13. ^ a b 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. sabão
14. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. sabão
15. ^ a b c Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. sabão
16. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sabão
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. sabão
18. ^ 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. sabão