seixo

Forms

seixo m (plural seixos)^[1] An older spelling is seyxo.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin saxum (“rock, boulder”), first recorded in the 14th century.^[3][4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician seixo, Italian sasso and Old Leonese sejo (“stone”).^[5][6][1] Elsewhere in Romance the Latin word was largely replaced by petra.^[5]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[7][1] It goes back to *saksom.^[1][7] Some link it with the root Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”) of secō and with Germanic words for “knife” such as Old High German sahs.^[8][1] De Vaan rejects the link with the root, because it leaves the ⟨a⟩ of the Latin word unexplained.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 14th century, as a hard stone or a fragment of rock.^[3] Cardoso translates it in 1569 with Latin saxum.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau defines it in 1712 as a rough and very hard stone, and Morais adds that it may be of any size, from a cornerstone to a large boulder.^[2][10] The modern sense is a fragment of rock rounded by water, a pebble, and geologists use the word for particles between 4 and 64 millimetres.^[3][1] Small round stones used to decorate gardens and paths are also seixos.^[3]

In popular and children's speech the word means a bird's egg in the nest.^[3][11][12] In north-eastern Brazil it came to mean a debt left unpaid to a prostitute, and then any unpaid debt or swindle, with passar seixo “to leave without paying”.^[3][13]

Timeline

• 1300s – first record.^[3]
• 1400s – first record of seixal “a place full of pebbles”.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it as Latin saxum.^[9]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines it as a rough, very hard stone.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais: a hard stone of any size.^[10]
• 1817 – first record of seixoso.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pebble: a fragment of rock rounded by running water; a calhau.^{[3][16][17][1]}
2. (geology) A rock particle between 4 and 64 millimetres in diameter.^[1]
3. A small rough stone used in paving and building work.^[3]
4. A small round stone used to decorate gardens, paths and flowerpots.^[3]
5. (popular) A bird's egg (ovo) in the nest.^[3][18][11]
6. (north-eastern Brazil, informal) An unpaid debt, especially to a prostitute (prostituta); a swindle.^[3][19][13]

Word family

• seixal
• seixoso
• seixada

Related words

• Latin saxum
• Galician seixo
• Italian sasso

Usage notes

Seixo rolado is a pebble worn smooth by the sea or by a fast river.^[3][19] The word is also a Portuguese place name and surname.^[2][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. seixo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. seixo
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. seixo
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7631
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. saxum
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. saxum
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. seixo
10. ^ a b 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, 386
11. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8372
12. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. seixo
13. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. seixo
14. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. seixal
15. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. seixoso
16. ^ 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. seixo
17. ^ 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. seixo
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. seixo
19. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. seixo
20. ^ 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. seixo