selo

Forms

selo m (plural selos)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote seello, seelo, sseelo and seelho.^[2][3][4] Houaiss also lists saylo (1280) and the 15th-century çelo.^[2][3][4] From the 17th century to the early 20th the usual spelling was sello: Barbosa (1611), Pereira (1697), Bluteau (1712) and Vieira (1871) all head the word so.^[5][6][7][8]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sigillum (“small mark; statuette; seal”), written Old Galician-Portuguese seello in the medieval language.^[2][3][1] Houaiss and Wiktionary call it the popular doublet of sigilo, which was taken from the same Latin word by learned means.^[2][1]

The same Latin word is Galician selo, Spanish sello, Catalan segell, French sceau and Italian suggello, and Romanian sugel with the sense “whitlow”.^[9][1] Gothic borrowed it, and the English word seal comes from Old French seel.^[9][1]

The Latin noun is a diminutive of signum (“mark, sign”).^[2][1][10] Wiktionary traces the steps of that formation within early Latin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology has the word in charters from 1257 (seelada de nossos seelos “sealed with our seals”), and one of 1260 explains non auendo sseello proprio “not having a seal of my own”, the issuer had the charter sealed with the seal of the town council.^[4] The 13th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of a carta do herdamento con seu seelo “the deed of inheritance with its seal” and of the official who kept the king's seals.^[4] Houaiss's first date, 1280, comes from Viterbo's Elucidário.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the word meant the seal of a document, the matrix and its impression in wax or lead.^[4] Bluteau (1712) describes it as a flat piece of metal engraved with the arms of a king, a person of rank, a state or a religious body, used to seal charters, patents and other important papers.^[7] From the sealed document it passed to the duty paid on certain papers, the imposto do selo, and to the printed stamp that shows the duty paid, hence the postage stamp.^[2][11] Figuratively it is any distinctive mark.^[2]

Regional dictionaries of Portugal record selo for a punch and for any stain.^[12] Phrases include tirar o selo “to use something for the first time” and os sete selos of the Apocalypse.^[2]

Timeline

• 1257 – seelada de nossos seelos in a charter.^[4]
• 13th century – seelo in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4]
• 1280 – the form saylo recorded by Viterbo.^[2]
• 1392 – the spelling sseelo.^[2]
• 15th century – the contracted form çelo.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders selo by Latin sigillum.^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa has sello falso “forged seal”.^[5]
• 1712 – Bluteau describes the seals of kings and states.^[7]
• 1813 – Morais adds the piece of paper with the impressed seal.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A seal: a stamp engraved with the device, signature or arms of a state, a ruler, a body or a person, pressed on documents or objects to authenticate them, close them or mark ownership.^[2][15][1]
2. A small mark put on things to identify them or make them tamper-proof; a carimbo.^[2][16]
3. A postage stamp, adhesive or printed by a franking machine: Comprou selos para as cartas.^[2][17][1]
4. The impression left by a stamp, seal or franking machine.^[2][11]
5. (by extension) Anything that closes or seals.^[2]
6. (law) A duty charged on certain documents, and the stamp that shows it was paid.^[2]
7. A maker's mark on certain goods.^[2]
8. (figurative) A distinctive mark or sign.^[2][11]
9. (archaeology) A seal used to stamp a signature or mark on clay before firing.^[2]

Word family

• selinho

Related words

• selar
• sigilo
• sinete
• Latin sigillum
• Spanish sello

Usage notes

Houaiss enters a separate, rare selo (also with closed /e/), adjective and noun, for the Selli, the people of Dodona in Epirus, from Latin Selli; he records it from 1881.^[2]

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 o p q r s t u v Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. selo
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. selo
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. seelo
5. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sello
6. ^ 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. sello
7. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sello
8. ^ 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, 458
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7904
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. signum
11. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8379
12. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. selo
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. selo
14. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 682
15. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. selo
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. selo
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. selo