serpente

Forms

serpente f (plural serpentes)^[1] Houaiss records serpentes and serpete in the 14th century and ssermpemte in the 15th; the Crónica Geral has a feminine serpenta.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin serpēns (“serpent, snake”), written Old Galician-Portuguese serpente in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] The Latin noun is the present participle of serpō (“to creep, crawl”) used as a noun;^[2] Houaiss explains it as a euphemism that took the place of anguis (“snake”), the name of the dreaded animal.^[2] Nascentes, alone among these sources, calls the word a learned form.^[5]

The popular doublet is serpe, from Vulgar Latin *serpēs, a nominative form of the same Latin word.^[4][6][7] The Latin participle gave Galician serpente, Spanish serpiente, Catalan serpent, French serpent and Italian serpente; the Vulgar Latin form gave Spanish sierpe, Catalan serp, Italian serpe and Romanian șarpe.^[7][1]

The Latin verb comes from Proto-Indo-European *serp-, and its cognates include Sanskrit सर्प (sarpá, “snake”) and Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν (herpetón, “creeping animal”).^[1] Houaiss also compares the Greek and Sanskrit verbs for “to creep”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1079 already has the word in a place name, subtus monte serpente “below the serpent mountain”.^[3] In Galician-Portuguese prose it appears from the 14th century: the Miragres de Santiago speak of what faz naçer os gurgullos … et moytas serpentes sen cõçebemẽto de macho “brings forth weevils … and many serpents without conception by a male”, the Crónica Troiana of hũa serpente moy grãde “a very great serpent” raised by enchantments, and the Crónica Geral has virõ hũa serpenta yrada que vijna pello aere “they saw an angry serpent that came through the air”.^[3][3] The first sense is “snake”, real or monstrous.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) gives serpente and serpe as one word, and Bluteau (1712) describes the animal as long, round, footless and coiling.^[8][9] Morais (1789) makes it the general name for the cobra, the viper and the asp, and records the metal serpents set on cannon; his edition of 1813 adds the vulgar sense “ugly old woman”.^[10][11] The figurative senses “treacherous person” and “the devil” (serpente infernal) are in the older Caldas Aulete.^[12]

Houaiss adds the musical sense, a bass wind instrument shaped like a snake, and the zoological plural serpentes for the suborder, which follows the scientific Latin name Serpentes.^[2] Derived words followed: serpentear “to wind like a snake” (before 1656) and serpentão, the instrument (1844).^[13][4]

Timeline

• 1079 – a Latin charter names a place monte serpente.^[3]
• 14th century – first records in Galician-Portuguese, among them the Miragres de Santiago; spelt serpentes and serpete.^[2][4][3]
• 15th century – spelt ssermpemte; the Vida de São João Clímaco (a witness of 1430–1500) uses the word.^[2][14]
• 1611 – Barbosa enters serpente, ou serpe.^[8]
• before 1656 – first record of serpentear.^[13]
• 1712 – Bluteau describes the animal at length.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais records the metal serpents of artillery.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais adds the sense “ugly old woman”.^[11]
• 1844 – first record of serpentão, the musical instrument.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A snake, any member of the suborder of reptiles also called ophidians; in Brazil a synonym of cobra.^[2][1][15]
2. Any snake, especially a venomous, threatening or very large one.^[2][12]
3. (informal) An ugly old woman; a hag.^[2][16]
4. (informal) A wicked, treacherous person: Não confies nela, é uma serpente.^[2][17]
5. Something evil, or that brings evils with it.^[2][15]
6. (figurative) The devil; also serpente infernal or serpente maldita.^[2][17]
7. Anything that winds like a snake.^[2]
8. (mythology) A creature living in the depths of the earth, held by some peoples to be life-giving and beneficial.^[2]
9. (music) The serpent, a bass wind instrument of wood, curved like a snake, used from the 16th century to accompany choirs.^[2]
10. (zoology, in the plural) The suborder Serpentes of scaled reptiles.^[2]

Word family

• serpentear
• serpentão

Related words

• serpe
• serpear
• serpentina
• Latin serpens
• Spanish serpiente

Usage notes

Houaiss notes that in Brazil serpente and cobra are synonyms, while in Spanish serpiente has always been a literary word, replaced in popular speech by culebra except in Peru.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. serpente
3. ^ 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. serpente
4. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. serpe
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. serpente
6. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. serpe
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7855
8. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. serpente
9. ^ 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. serpente
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, 395
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 692
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. serpente
13. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. serpentear
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. serpente
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. serpente
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. serpente
17. ^ a b 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. serpente