tanchagem

Forms

tanchagem f (plural tanchagens)^[1] Wiktionary also gives the variants tansagem and transagem.^[1] Houaiss and the original Caldas Aulete record plantagem as another name.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a form of Old Galician-Portuguese chantagem with its consonants swapped, and that word is inherited from Latin plantāgō (“plantain”).^[2][4][5][1] Cunha calls the metathesis probable.^[6] The older form survives in dictionaries as a name of the same plant, recorded from the 16th century.^[7] The original Caldas Aulete derived the word directly from the Latin by metathesis.^[3]

The same Latin word is Galician chantaxe, Spanish llantén, Catalan plantatge, French plantain, Italian piantaggine and Romanian pătlagină.^[8][1]

The Latin name is formed from planta (“sole of the foot”) with the suffix -āgō, after the shape of the leaves.^[9][1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is in Fernão Mendes Pinto, whose work he dates c. 1537–1583.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Pereira (1697) renders it with Latin plantago.^[11] Bluteau (1712) calls it a well-known herb of many kinds, three of them used in medicine, and gives two explanations of the Latin name: a plant “par excellence” for its virtues, or one whose leaves are shaped like the sole of the foot.^[12] Morais (1789) calls it a common herb.^[13] The original Caldas Aulete describes the plantains as astringent and wound-healing plants.^[3] Today the name covers the genus Plantago, especially the greater plantain, whose pollen causes hay fever.^[2]

Timeline

• 16th century – first record, in Fernão Mendes Pinto; the older chantagem is also recorded in that century.^[2][7]
• 1697 – Pereira: Tanchagem, Latin plantago.^[11]
• 1712 – Bluteau names three medicinal kinds.^[12]
• 1755 – Folqman lists tanchagem as a herb.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais calls it a common herb.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) Any of various plants of the genus Plantago, herbs or shrubs often used in medicine; plantain.^[2][1][15]
2. (botany) The greater plantain (Plantago major), a perennial with a rosette of broad oval leaves and long thin spikes of tiny flowers, native to Europe and widespread as a weed.^[2][5]
3. (botany, tanchagem-aquática) The water plantain (Alisma plantago), a marsh plant held to be harmful to cattle.^[16][17]

Related words

• chantagem
• plantagem
• plantago
• Latin plantāgō
• Galician chantaxe
• Spanish llantén

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tanchagem
3. ^ a b c 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. tanchagem
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tanchagem
5. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tanchagem
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tanchar
7. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. chantagem
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6577
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. plantain
11. ^ a b 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. tanchagem
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tanchagem
13. ^ 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, 443
14. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tanchagem
15. ^ 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. tanchagem
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. tanchagem
17. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. tanchagem