seda

Forms

seda f (countable and uncountable, plural sedas)^[1] Houaiss records seedas in the 14th century and çeda in the 15th.^[2] The spelling sêda was used before the spelling reforms.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin saeta (“bristle, horsehair”), also spelt ⟨sēta⟩.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} In Latin the word meant only the coarse hair of pigs and horses, a brush of bristles and a fishing line;^[6][7][8] Corominas and Aurélio suppose that in the Middle Ages it was applied to silk thread, which was then imported as thread.^[6][7][8] The sense “silk” is not found in Latin writers or glossaries, and Du Cange's first examples are from 1118.^[6] Nascentes cites an older view that silk was called ⟨saeta serica⟩, “hair of the Seres”, the people of eastern Asia, and then simply ⟨seta⟩;^[4] Lokotsch saw a chance meeting of the Latin word with a Medieval Latin seta of the Middle Ages modelled on a Chinese word for silk.^[4]

The same Latin word is Galician seda, Spanish seda, Catalan seda, Occitan seda, Italian seta and French soie.^[9][4] Early Romance passed it in the 8th or 9th century to Old High German sida, whence German Seide, and to Old English side.^[6]

The Latin noun goes back to *saitā and Proto-Indo-European *séh₂ito- (“cord”), from a root meaning “to bind”, with cognates such as Lithuanian saĩtas (“tie”) and seid (“cord”).^[10][1] De Vaan notes that Schrijver finds the link between “cord” and “hair” doubtful, but thinks the metaphor easy.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's first records are in the Cantigas de Santa Maria: pano de seda, “silk cloth”, and babous que crian a seda, “worms that breed silk”;^[11] Machado's first date had been 1388.^[11] The Crónica Troiana has a bed strung dũas cordas anchas de seda, where the DDGM leaves open whether silk or bristle is meant.^[11] Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Portuguese has kept the Latin sense “bristle” beside “silk”, which Spanish has mostly replaced with cerda.^[6] Morais in 1813 lists both: silk and the silk cloths made of it, and the hairs of the beard, tail and body of animals, the bristles that shoemakers fix to the end of their thread.^[12] Houaiss dates the plural sedas “coarse animal hairs” to before 1635.^[2] Bluteau repeated a derivation from a Hebrew word Sericoth.^[13]

Later senses are a crack or flaw in a metal plate or tool, the horsehair of a violin bow, and in Brazil a very gentle person and the paper used to roll a cannabis cigarette.^[2][14][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – panos de seda in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[11][2]
• 14th century – the spelling seedas.^[2]
• 1388 – Machado's first date for the word.^[11]
• 15th century – the spelling çeda.^[2]
• 1446 – seda in the Visão de Túndalo (witness 1431–1446).^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso gives Latin bombyx for it.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds bicho da seda, “silkworm”.^[17]
• before 1635 – the plural sedas for coarse animal hairs.^[2]
• 1813 – Morais lists the senses “silk” and “bristle”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. silk, the fine shining fibre of the cocoon of the silkworm (bicho-da-seda).^[2][8][5][1]
2. Silk thread.^[2][8]
3. Silk cloth;^[2][5][1] (plural, informal) silk clothes: vestia-se de sedas.^[2][5][1]
4. (zoology) The fibre of a spider's web.^[2]
5. A crack or flaw in a metal plate or in a tool, where it is likely to break.^[2][18]
6. (Brazil, figurative) A very kind, gentle person: a avó dele é uma seda.^[2]
7. (ironic) An oversensitive person.^[2]
8. (Brazil, informal) rolling paper for a cannabis cigarette.^[2][14][1]
9. (plural) The long coarse hairs of some animals, bristles.^[2][12]
10. (plural, music) The horsehair of the bow of a violin or cello.^[2]

Word family

• bicho-da-seda
• sedoso
• sedaço
• sedalha
• sedalina

Related words

• sedenho
• setáceo
• Latin saeta
• Galician seda

Usage notes

Morais records an old word seda “seat, judge's chair”, with the line tu que sées na seda, “you who sit on the seat”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 q r s t Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. seda
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. seda
4. ^ a b c d Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 462
5. ^ a b c d 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. seda
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 186
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. seda
8. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. seda
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7498
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e 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. seda
12. ^ a b c d Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 676
13. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. seda
14. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. seda
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. seda
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. seda
17. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. seda
18. ^ 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. seda