serra

Forms

serra f (plural serras)^[1] Medieval texts also write çerra (1390), sserras and sera.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin serra (“saw”), written Old Galician-Portuguese serra in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] The sense “mountain range” is the same word: the jagged line of the peaks was compared to the teeth of a saw.^[5][6][7]

The same Latin word is Galician serra, Spanish sierra, Catalan serra, Occitan serra and Italian serra.^[8][1] The mountain sense is found across the Iberian Peninsula, in the south of France and the north of Italy, and as far as Aromanian.^[7][9]

De Vaan reconstructs *sersā “saw”, from Proto-Indo-European *sers- (“to cut off”), and sees the best link within Latin in sāriō (“to hoe, weed”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century.^[2] The glossary of the Crónica Geral notes that the mountain sense is normal from the 13th century and is found in Latin documents from the 10th.^[3] The Cantigas de Santa Maria say a pe dũa serra “at the foot of a mountain” and passou serras e chãos “crossed mountains and plains”, and a cantiga of Alfonso X has O que foi passar a serra “he who went over the mountains”.^[3][11] Cunha dates the sense “mountain” to the 13th century and the tool to the 15th.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The mountain sense is the older in the record;^[2][4] cero for the cutting tool appears in the 15th century.^[2][4] Bluteau (1712–1728) describes the carpenter's saw and its parts, and Feijó (1734) distinguishes the serra of the carpenter from the serra of the mountain.^[12][13] Morais (1813) adds a battle formation with angles like the teeth of a saw.^[14]

The name passed to several fishes with spiny fins, recorded from 1609.^[2] In Rio Grande do Sul serra is a narrow thicket along a riverbank.^[2][15] The cheese of the Serra da Estrela is called simply serra.^[2]

Timeline

• 10th century – the mountain sense in Latin documents.^[3]
• 13th century – serra “mountain” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3]
• 1390 – the spelling çerra.^[2]
• 15th century – the sense “saw”, in the form cero.^[2][4]
• 1569 – Cardoso lists Serra.^[16]
• 1609 – the fish sense.^[2]
• 1734 – Feijó distinguishes the carpenter's serra from the mountain.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A saw, a cutting tool with a toothed steel blade or disc.^[2][17][1]
2. The blade or disc of such a tool.^[2][17]
3. A mountain range with many peaks.^[2][17][1]
4. A mountain; any high ground.^[2][17]
5. (Rio Grande do Sul) A narrow thicket along a river or stream.^[2][15]
6. (ichthyology) Any of several fishes of the mackerel family with spines on the fins.^[2]
7. (Portugal) A soft sheep's-milk cheese from the Serra da Estrela.^[2]

Word family

• serrote
• motosserra
• eletrosserra

Related words

• serrar
• Latin serra
• Spanish sierra

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. serra
3. ^ a b c d e 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. serra
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. serrar
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. serra
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sierra
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7861
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. serra
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. serra
13. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. serra
14. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 692
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. serra
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. serra
17. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. serra