solha

Forms

solha f (plural solhas)^[1] The 13th-century spelling is ssolha, and solla is found in the 14th century.^[2][3] Houaiss also records solha itself from the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin solea (“sandal, sole; sole (the fish)”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ssolha and Old Galician-Portuguese solla in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun is derived from solum (“bottom, base”).^[5][1]

The same Latin word is Galician solla “sole (fish)”, Spanish suela “sole of a shoe”, Italian soglia and French seuil “threshold”.^[6][7][1] The REW lists the fish sense of the Latin word separately, and Nascentes explains it by the shape: the fish is flat like the sole of a shoe.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century, and their two oldest senses are not the fish: a kind of coat of mail set with steel plates, and a kind of sandal.^[2][3] R. Lorenzo, quoted in the DDGM, cites armados de sollas “armed with solhas” from the Crónica Geral.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The armour sense lasted into the early modern language: Bluteau (1712–1728) still enters solha as a defensive arm of the ancients, quoting a life of the Constable Nuno Álvares Pereira, beside the fish.^[9] Houaiss marks both medieval senses as obsolete and dates the fish sense to the 17th century.^[2] Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 already has Solha, peyxe, glossed with Latin solea.^[10] Bluteau describes it as a river fish living on the sandy bottom, called patruça in Lisbon.^[9]

In Portugal the word is also a popular name for a slap in the face, a sense Silva Bastos already records in 1912, and in the Minho it means an old slipper.^[2][11][12] A dialect survey of 1970 records it as a disparaging word a husband uses for his wife.^[13] In Brazil the name is used above all for a flatfish of the Atlantic coast.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, spelt ssolha, for a coat of mail and a sandal.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the spelling solla.^[3]
• 1361 – the date Machado gives for the word, according to Lorenzo's chronology.^[8]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists Solha as a fish.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau has both the fish and the old armour.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais enters it as a river fish and an old kind of armour.^[16]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the popular sense “slap”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flatfish of the family of the plaice and flounder, related to and resembling the linguado (sole); in Brazil chiefly a flatfish of the Atlantic coast.^{[2][17][14][1]}
2. (Portugal, popular) A slap in the face: Levou uma solha do irmão.^[2][18][12]
3. (Minho) An old slipper.^[2][12]
4. (obsolete) A coat of mail set with steel plates; also a kind of sandal.^[2][19]

Related words

• sola
• Latin solea
• Galician solla
• Spanish suela

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 k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. solha
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. sola
4. ^ 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. 476
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. solea
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8064
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. solea
8. ^ 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. solha
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. solha
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. solha
11. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. solha
12. ^ a b c 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. solha
13. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. solha
14. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. solha
15. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. solha
16. ^ 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, 414
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. solha
18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8602
19. ^ 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. solha