sala

Forms

sala f (plural salas)^[1] A Latin charter of 969 writes the word salla; the vernacular texts have sala from the 15th century.^[2][3] A letter of 1599 still spells it salla, and so does a Lisbon text of 1741.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Germanic sal (“a building of a single large reception room”), according to Houaiss, who follows Corominas on the Spanish word in leaving open whether it reached the Iberian Peninsula through Catalan or Gallo-Romance, or directly from Gothic.^[2][6] Corominas thinks the two currents probably met.^[6][7] Cunha and the Academia's DLP derive it instead from French salle, from Frankish *sal.^[8][9] Nascentes and Aurélio bring it from Old High German sal through Old Occitan sala, and Wiktionary from Old Galician-Portuguese sala, from a Germanic language, ultimately Proto-Germanic *salą.^[10][11][1]

The masculine Germanic noun became feminine in Romance: the DHLF notes that the Latin of the Germanic law codes already has sala, and Corominas puts the change of gender down to the influence of synonyms such as corte (“court”).^[12][7] The word is shared with Spanish sala and Italian sala.^[12][6]

Kroonen reconstructs the Germanic noun as a neuter s-stem *saliz- (“hall, house”), behind Old Norse salr, Old English sæl, Dutch zaal and German Saal, and finds the same formation in Old Church Slavonic село (selo, “field, abode, village”).^[13] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“human settlement, dwelling”).^[1] Wiktionary also names the place name and surname Sá as a doublet of this word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is Latin: a charter of 969 lists salla integra cum quinque servitialias, “a whole hall with five outbuildings”, and a document of 1108 has the place name uilla Sala.^[3] In Portuguese the word appears in the 15th century; the first dated text in the CTA corpus is the Vida de Santo Aleixo Confessor of 1416.^[14][8] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders it with Latin atrium, the front hall of a house.^[15]

Semantic evolution

The first dictionaries treat the sala as the large front room of a house where guests wait and are received: Barbosa (1611) glosses it as a room for supper, and Bluteau (1712–1728) as the spacious front room where one rests and waits for the person one has come to see, with a fanciful derivation from Hebrew.^[16][17] Morais (1789) adds the phrases fazer sala a alguém, to frequent someone's house to win their favour, and dar sala franca, to give an open banquet.^[18]

From the room for receiving visitors the word widened to any large room, then to a room for a public service or a performance, and by metonymy to its furniture and to the audience in it.^[2][11] In Brazil it is also a classroom and the class of pupils in it, and in the north-east the pen of a fish trap or the part of a cattle enclosure where the herd stays.^[2][19] Compounds name the rooms of a modern home: sala de estar, sala de jantar, sala de visitas.^[2][1]

The word passed into Konkani and Tetum.^[1]

Timeline

• 969 – a Latin charter has salla.^[3][2]
• 1102 – Spanish Sala as a personal name in a Leonese document, the first Spanish record.^[6]
• 1416 – first dated Portuguese text in the CTA, the Vida de Santo Aleixo Confessor.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso enters sala with Latin atrium.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa: sala franca, a banquet.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais records fazer sala a alguém.^[18]
• 1813 – first record of the augmentative salão.^[8]
• 1844 – first record of the diminutive saleta.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The main room of a house or flat, where the family gathers and visitors are received; the living room.^[2][11][1]
2. Any fairly large room of a building: sala de reuniões, sala de espera.^[2][20]
3. A room in a public building set aside for a particular service: sala de audiências.^[2][21]
4. A hall for plays, concerts or films; by metonymy, the audience in it.^[2][22]
5. The furniture and decoration of a living room.^[2][11]
6. (Brazil) A classroom; by metonymy, the class that is taught in it.^[2][1]
7. (north-eastern Brazil) The first pen of a fish trap (curral-de-peixe); the part of a cattle enclosure where the herd is kept.^[2][19]
8. (obsolete) A metal tray, a salva.^[20][21]

Word family

• salão
• saleta
• antessala

Related words

• Spanish sala
• French salle
• German Saal

Usage notes

Fazer sala a alguém means to keep a visitor company and entertain them.^[2][18]

Dalgado records a separate noun salá, the public prayer of Muslims, from Arabic salāt, in Portuguese texts of Asia from the 16th century, and Morais has salá “courtesy, greeting”, which he labels Arabic.^[23][18]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sala
3. ^ a b c 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. sala
4. ^ 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. sala
5. ^ 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. sala
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 133
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sala
8. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sala
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. sala
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sala
11. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sala
12. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. salle
13. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 424
14. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. sala
15. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sala
16. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sala
17. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sala
18. ^ a b c d 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, 368
19. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. sala
20. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. sala
21. ^ 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. sala
22. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8244
23. ^ Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 2, 273