sesta

Forms

sesta f (plural sestas)^[1] Houaiss records seesta and sexta in the 15th century.^[2] Morais (1789) warns against the spelling sexta.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sexta (“the sixth (hour)”), with hōra (“hour”) understood, written Old Galician-Portuguese sesta in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] The Latin word is the feminine of sextus (“sixth”), from sex (“six”).^[1]

The Roman day began at six in the morning, so its sixth hour was noon.^[2][5] Nascentes explains that the heat of the Iberian Peninsula is strongest from noon to about three o'clock, and that the rest taken at that hour, a custom he dates to the time of the Moors, took the name of the hour.^[5][6] The cognate is Spanish siesta, recorded from 1220–1250 and, according to Nascentes, the source of French sieste.^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century already use the word for the hottest part of the day (cada dia pela gran sesta, “every day in the great noonday heat”) and for the canonical hour of sext (dizia prima, terça e sesta, “said prime, terce and sext”), and also have dormindo na sesta, sleeping at that hour.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the Crónica Troiana the word means both the noonday heat and the nap taken in it.^[8] A cantiga d'escarnho begins un dia, pela sesta, “one day, at the hour of the siesta”.^[8] Cardoso (1569) and Pereira (1697) gloss it with Latin meridies “midday”, and Folqman (1755) with meridiatio, the midday rest, with the phrase dormir a sesta.^[9][10][11] Morais (1789) defines it as the hour of noon at which one usually sleeps after eating.^[3]

Today the word names the rest or nap after lunch, the time of that rest, and the hottest hour of the day.^[2][12] In Rio Grande do Sul it is also the act of sestear, resting at that hour.^[13]

Timeline

• 1200s – gran sesta and dormindo na sesta in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[8][2][4]
• 1416 – sesta in the Vida de Santo Aleixo Confessor.^[14]
• 1400s – the spellings seesta and sexta.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Sesta with Latin meridies.^[9]
• 1755 – Folqman records dormir a sesta.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais defines the word as the noon hour of the after-meal sleep.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rest or short nap after lunch; a siesta.^[2][15][1]
2. The time of that rest.^[2][12]
3. The hottest hour of the day; meridiana.^[2][16]

Related words

• sexta
• sestear
• seis
• Latin sextus
• Spanish siesta

Usage notes

Fazer a sesta and dormir a sesta mean to sleep or rest after lunch.^[2][17] The word is pronounced with an open /ɛ/ and differs in spelling from its homophones cesta “basket” and sexta “Friday; sixth”.^[15][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sesta
3. ^ a b c 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, 398
4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sesta
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sesta
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 467
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. siesta
8. ^ a b c d 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. sesta
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sesta
10. ^ 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. sesta
11. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sesta
12. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sesta
13. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. sesta
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. sesta
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. sesta
16. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8454
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. sesta