semana

Forms

semana f (plural semanas)^[1] Houaiss records the medieval spellings sumana (13th century) and semana (14th century), and somana in 1561.^[2] García de Diego lists somana as Old Portuguese and Galician, and Wiktionary gives somana as an alternative form.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin septimāna (“week”), written Old Galician-Portuguese sumana and Old Galician-Portuguese semana in the medieval texts.^[2][1][4] The Late Latin noun is the feminine of the adjective septimānus (“of the number seven”), used as a noun; the adjective is formed from septimus (“seventh”), the ordinal of septem (“seven”).^[2][1] In classical Latin the adjective was said of the nones that fell on the seventh day of the month.^[5][2]

The same Latin word is Galician semana, Spanish semana, Catalan setmana, Occitan setmana, French semaine, Italian settimana and Romanian săptămână.^[6][1] The older Spanish form was Old Spanish setmana, and Asturian selmana is found in Leonese too.^[3][1]

Nascentes notes the Latin noun in the Theodosian Code and in the pilgrimage account of Egeria.^[7] He adds that Cornu and Nunes, because the /n/ between vowels was kept, took the word for a semi-learned or foreign one.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word with forms of 1188–1230 and 1209 taken from Machado, and quotes sumana in the 13th century.^[2] A text of 1224 still writes the Latin septimana.^[7] The Historia Troiana has o primeyro dia da semana “the first day of the week”.^[8] The sense was the period of seven days from the start.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 translates the word with Latin hebdomas, and Morais in 1813 defines it as the seven days into which the month is divided.^[9][10] Morais also records estar de semana, to be on duty for a week in a rota.^[10] Vieira adds Semana Santa, the last week of Lent, and the week's wages.^[11] By metonymy the word came to mean the work done in the week and the pay for it, and also the working days as opposed to Sunday.^[2][12] A modern sense is the span of days in which an event is held, as in the Semana de Arte Moderna of São Paulo.^[12][2]

The word passed into the Portuguese-based creoles: Kabuverdianu sumána, Kristang sumana and Guinea-Bissau Creole sumana.^[1] It was also borrowed by Konkani and by Amerindian languages of Brazil such as Mbya Guarani.^[1]

Timeline

• 1188–1230 – setmanas, the first form in Houaiss, from Machado's records.^[2]
• 1224 – the Latin septimana in a text of the Leges.^[7]
• 13th century – sumana.^[2]
• 14th century – semana; the Historia Troiana has o primeyro dia da semana.^[2][8]
• 1540 – semana in a private letter.^[13]
• 1561 – the variant somana.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it with Latin hebdomas.^[9]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau reports Venegas's derivation from Latin septem mane “seven mornings”.^[14]
• 1813 – Morais records estar de semana.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A week, the period of seven days fixed by the calendar, from Sunday to Saturday.^[2][12][1]
2. Any period of seven consecutive days: Passei uma semana na praia.^[2][15]
3. The working days of the week, five or six, as opposed to the weekend.^[2][12]
4. The work done during a week, and the wages for it.^[2][16]
5. A period, of about a week or not, in which an event is held or celebrated.^[2][17]

Word family

• semanal
• semanário
• semanada

Related words

• sete
• sétimo
• Latin septimāna
• Galician semana

Usage notes

Semana Santa is Holy Week, from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday;^[2][12] semana furada is a week with one or more holidays, and semana inglesa a working week that ends on Saturday at midday or earlier.^[2][12] The saying na semana dos nove dias “in the week of nine days” means never.^[17][11]

Bluteau, after Venegas, derived the word from Latin septem mane “seven mornings”; the modern dictionaries derive it from the Late Latin septimana.^[14][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. semana
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. septimana
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. semana
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. septimānus
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7834
7. ^ 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. 463
8. ^ 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. semana
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. semana
10. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 682
11. ^ a b 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, 461
12. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. semana
13. ^ 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. semana
14. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. semana
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. semana
16. ^ 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. semana
17. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8381