serpe

Forms

serpe f (plural serpes)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *serpes (“snake”), a nominative formed in place of Latin serpēns (“snake, serpent”), and is written Old Galician-Portuguese serpe in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Venantius Fortunatus already writes Late Latin serps, and the Romance forms point to a feminine of the third declension.^[5][6] The REW sets this type beside the one continuing the full stem, to which serpente belongs.^[5]

The same Latin form is Galician serpe, Spanish sierpe, Catalan serp, Occitan sèrp, Italian serpe and Romanian șarpe.^[5][1]

The Latin noun is the present participle of serpō (“to crawl, glide”), from Proto-Indo-European *serp- (“to creep”).^[7][1] Its cognates include Sanskrit सर्प (sarpá, “snake”), Ancient Greek ἕρπω (hérpō, “to creep”) and Albanian gjarpër (“snake”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the first record to the 14th century.^[2][3] The Galician Crónica Troiana has hũas serpes moy fẽas “some very ugly serpents”, and a version of the Grail story describes a knight's shield de argent e uũa serpe de azul “silver with a blue serpent”, already the heraldic sense.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the 17th century the word was felt as a variant of serpente: Pereira (1697) renders it with Latin serpens and Bluteau (1712) refers it there, quoting Camões.^[8][9] Bluteau also gives the saying mais velho que a serpe “older than the serpent” and the serpe of an arquebus or musket, the part that held the match.^[9][10] Morais (1789) adds serpes de cristal for winding streams.^[11] Morais's edition of 1813 quotes a serpe de nosso timbre, the serpent on the crest of the kings of Portugal.^[10]

The original Caldas Aulete marks the word poetic and adds the senses “ugly old woman”, “old piece of artillery” and, in architecture, “serpent-shaped ornament”.^[12] Silva Bastos (1912) and today's dictionaries also label it poetic.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record.^[2][3]
• 1697 – Pereira renders Serpe with Latin serpens.^[8]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives the saying mais velho que a serpe and the serpe of the arquebus.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais records serpes de cristal for winding waters.^[11]
• 1836 – first record of the derivative serpentão.^[3]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos marks the word poetic.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (poetic) A serpent, a snake: Uma serpe enrolava-se na pedra.^[15][14][16]
2. (heraldry) A figure shown in profile with a serpent's head and body, a bat's wings and a twisted tail, a symbol of strength or greatness of spirit; a wyvern.^[16][1]
3. (architecture) An ornamental line in the shape of a serpent.^[15][17]
4. (historical) An old long, thin piece of artillery, like the culverin.^[2][15]
5. (figurative, informal) An ugly old woman; a witch (bruxa).^[2][15][18]
6. A spark.^[18][19]

Word family

• serpear
• serpentão

Related words

• serpente
• serpentina
• serpentário
• Latin serpēns
• Galician serpe
• Spanish sierpe

Usage notes

The phrase velho como a serpe means “very old”.^[2][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. serpe
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. serpe
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 466
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7855
6. ^ a b 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. serpe
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b 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. serpe
9. ^ 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. serpe
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 692
11. ^ 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, 395
12. ^ a b 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. serpe
13. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. serpe
14. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. serpe
15. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. serpe
16. ^ a b 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. serpe
17. ^ 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. serpe
18. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8439
19. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. serpe