sinal

Forms

sinal m (plural sinais)^[1] The old texts write sinal and signal, plural sinaes;^[2][3][4][5] Post Scriptum has synall in a letter of 1538.^[2][3][4][5] Feijó (1734) gives sinal and sináes as the spellings of usage, and Silva Bastos (1912) judges sinal as good as or better than signal.^[6][7]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin signālis (“serving as a sign”), an adjective later used as a noun, written Old Galician-Portuguese sinal in the oldest texts.^[3][2][1] Nascentes and Aurélio start from the Vulgar Latin noun signale, the neuter of the adjective.^[8][9] The adjective is formed from signum (“mark, sign”).^[1][10]

The same Latin noun is Spanish señal, Catalan senyal, Occitan senhal and Italian segnale; in Spanish it became feminine.^[11][12] Within Portuguese the same family has signo from the Latin noun, and senha and sina from its plural.^[2]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun from Proto-Indo-European *sek(h₂)-no- (“cut”), related to secō (“to cut”): a sign was first something cut or carved;^[13][1] Wiktionary also mentions *sekʷ- (“to follow”).^[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology finds sinales beside signales in a Latin charter of 818, and Houaiss dates the word to 1130 from another Latin document.^[4][3] In the 13th-century cantigas it means a mark or point of reference, a feature of the face or body, the arms on a shield, and a deposit paid on a purchase: in a cantiga of Lopo Liaz someone dobr' o sinal, pays the deposit twice over.^[4][14]

Semantic evolution

Medieval documents also use sinal for a piece of movable property: leases of 1215, 1384 and 1404 require the best sinal a tenant owns as a death duty, and sinal do juiz was a judge's seal.^[15] In the cantigas parar sinal meant “to serve a legal summons”.^[14] The Crónica Troiana has the senses “gesture” and “omen”.^[4] Barbosa (1611) records fazer seu sinal “to sign”, and Morais (1789) defines the word as anything that brings another to mind, whether by a natural connection, like smoke for fire, or by convention.^[16][17] Houaiss dates the medical sense, an objective symptom, to the 1950s; modern technical uses include the signal of telecommunications and the sign of mathematics.^[3][1]

Timeline

• 818 – sinales in a Latin charter.^[4]
• 1130 – Houaiss's date for the word, from a Latin document.^[3]
• 13th century – sinal and signal in the cantigas, for a mark, a facial feature and a deposit.^[4][2]
• 1215 – sinal “a piece of movable property” in a document of the Benedictines of Porto.^[15]
• c. 1430 – first record in the CTA, in the Horto do Esposo.^[18]
• 1611 – Barbosa records fazer seu sinal “to sign”.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais distinguishes natural and conventional signs.^[17]
• 1950s – the medical sense “clinical sign”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sign, an indication that allows one to know, recognise or foresee something: sinais de chuva.^[3][9][1]
2. A signal agreed between people, or used to send orders and warnings at a distance; the bell that marks the start and end of lessons.^[3][9][1]
3. A gesture: Fez-me sinal para entrar.^[3][1]
4. A trace, mark or vestige left by someone or something.^[3][19]
5. A mole or spot on the skin; a scar.^[3][20][1]
6. (medicine) An objective sign of a disease observed by a doctor.^[3][21]
7. An omen, a portent.^[3][22]
8. A deposit, money or goods given to secure a contract or a purchase.^[3][1]
9. A signature; a notary's mark.^[3][20]
10. A traffic light; a road sign.^[1]
11. (telecommunications) A signal carrying information.^[3][1]
12. (mathematics) A sign such as + or −.^[1]

Word family

• assinalar
• sinalizar
• sinalização
• sinalizador

Related words

• assinar
• assinatura
• ensinar
• insígnia
• senha
• significado
• significar
• signo
• sina
• sinete
• Latin signum
• Spanish señal

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. signo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. sinal
4. ^ 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. sinal
5. ^ a b 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. sinal
6. ^ 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. sinal
7. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. sinal
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sinal
9. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. sinal
10. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. señal
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. signale
12. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 471
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b 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. sinal
15. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 325
16. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. sinal
17. ^ 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, 402
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. sinal
19. ^ 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. sinal
20. ^ 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. sinal
21. ^ 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. sinal
22. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8509