suor

Forms

suor m (plural suores)^[1] Medieval texts also write suur and sudor.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sūdor (“sweat”), written Old Galician-Portuguese suor, Old Galician-Portuguese suur and Old Galician-Portuguese sudor in medieval texts.^[3][2][1][5] The long Latin ō gave a closed /o/, which Nunes says the word once had in the whole country and still keeps in the Algarve; the standard language now has an open vowel.^[6][7][8][3]

The same Latin word is Galician suor, Spanish sudor, Catalan suor, French sueur, Italian sudore and Romanian sudoare.^[9][1]

The Latin noun is formed from sūdō (“to sweat”).^[10] De Vaan reconstructs a collective Proto-Indo-European *sueid-s- (“sweat”) and compares Welsh chwys (“sweat”), Ancient Greek ἱδρώς (hidrṓs, “sweat”) and Sanskrit and Avestan words for sweat.^[11] Wiktionary traces it to the root *sweyd- (“to sweat”), whence also Old English swāt, the ancestor of the English word sweat.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Crónica of 1344 has do poo e da suor “of the dust and the sweat”, and a Galician chronicle has the same phrase as do poo et da suur; in both the noun takes the feminine article.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) simply glosses it as Latin sudor.^[12] Morais (1813) adds the figurative sense “toil”, with the biblical phrase ganharás o pão com o suor de teu rosto “you will earn your bread by the sweat of your brow”, and the phrases suores de morte and estar em suores frios, “to be in great distress”.^[13] The original Aulete records suor de sangue for any liquid coming through the pores, and quotes Camões for the toil of the servants.^[14] Today the word also means the fruit of long labour.^[3][15] In Paraíba suor de alambique “sweat of the still” is sugar-cane spirit.^[16]

Timeline

• 1344 – da suor in the Crónica of 1344.^[4]
• 14th century – Cunha's first record, with suur and sudor.^[2]
• c. 1430 – suor in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[17]
• 15th century – the spelling sudor.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Suor as Latin sudor.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais records the figurative sense “toil”.^[13]
• 1945 – Nunes notes the closed vowel kept in the Algarve.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. sweat, the salty watery liquid that the sweat glands secrete through the pores of the skin.^[3][15][1]
2. The act of sweating; perspiration, transpiração.^[3][15][1]
3. By extension, any liquid oozing through pores or forming droplets on a surface, as on a cold bottle.^[3]
4. (figurative) Hard, painful toil.^[3][15]
5. (figurative) The fruit of hard work: viver do suor dos outros.^[3][18]

Word family

• suarento

Related words

• suar
• sudário
• sudorese
• sudorífero
• sudorífico
• sudoríparo
• Latin sūdor
• Galician suor
• Spanish sudor

Usage notes

Suor frio “cold sweat” is the sweat of illness or anguish, and ter suores frios means to be in a tight spot or to get a fright.^[3][1] Houaiss allows both a closed and an open vowel in the last syllable, and the plural is suores.^[3][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. suar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. suor
4. ^ a b c 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. suor
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. suor
6. ^ Nunes, José Joaquim (1945), Compêndio de gramática histórica portuguesa (fonética e morfologia), 5th ed., Lisboa: Livraria Clássica, p. 39
7. ^ a b Nunes, José Joaquim (1945), Compêndio de gramática histórica portuguesa (fonética e morfologia), 5th ed., Lisboa: Livraria Clássica, p. 51
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 480
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8427
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sudor
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. suor
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 738
14. ^ 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. suor
15. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. suor
16. ^ 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. suor
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. suor
18. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. suor