tecer

Forms

tecer (first-person singular present teço, first-person singular preterite teci, past participle tecido)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese had texer (13th century) and teixer (14th) beside tecer, and the old past participle teçudo.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin texō (“to weave, construct”), written Old Galician-Portuguese tecer and Old Galician-Portuguese texer in the oldest texts.^[3][2][1] Corominas calls the spelling with ⟨c⟩ irregular, and explains it by the old wavering between ⟨-ecer⟩ and ⟨-exer⟩ in the reflexes of the Latin suffix -ēscō, and Nascentes, after Cornu, by the influence of the inchoative verbs in ⟨-ecer⟩.^[5][6][7]

The same Latin verb is Galician tecer, Spanish tejer, Catalan teixir, Italian tessere, French tisser and Romanian țese.^[8][1]

The Latin verb continues *teksō.^[1][9] De Vaan reconstructs a PIE present Proto-Indo-European *teḱ-s- (“to fashion”), with cognates in Sanskrit, Avestan and Hittite;^[9][1] Wiktionary leaves open whether it comes from *tḗtḱ-ti or from an s-present of *teḱ-.^[9][1] Latin tēla (“cloth on the loom”) belongs to the same verb.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The participle is the oldest form: the Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of panos d'ouro teçudos “cloths woven with gold” and of something mui ben teçudo “very well woven”.^[4][3] The Galician-Portuguese Fuero Real writes subre fiar ou texer “about spinning or weaving”.^[4] A cantiga warns that a man who loves wealth should not set his daughter to weaving, rope-making or sewing (non ponha sa filh'a tecer / nen a cordas nen a coser).^[10]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) and Pereira (1697) give it with Latin texo.^[11][12] Bluteau (1712–1728) adds the metaphor “to compose”, as in weaving a work, a poem or a history.^[13] The figurative “to plot, to scheme” is in Cunha's definition and in Silva Bastos (1912), who also records the use for small children waving their arms and legs.^[2][14] Derivatives date from the Middle Ages: tecedor and tecelão (as teçelam) in the 13th century, tecedeira in the 14th, tecido “fabric” in the 16th and tecelagem in 1797.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – teçudo in the Cantigas de Santa Maria;^[3][2][4] texer in other texts.^[3][2][4]
• 13th century – tecedor and teçelam.^[2]
• 14th century – tecer, teçer, teixer;^[3][2] tecedeira.^[3][2]
• 16th century – tecido as a noun.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin texo.^[11]
• 1712 – Bluteau records the metaphor “to compose”.^[13]
• 1797 – first record of tecelagem.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To weave: to interlace threads, straw, wicker and the like to make fabric, nets, mats or baskets.^[3][15][1]
2. (intransitive) To work at the loom (tear); to be a weaver.^[3][16]
3. To make (clothes, covers) with knitting or crochet needles.^[3]
4. Of a spider, bird or caterpillar: to build (a web, nest or cocoon).^[3][16]
5. To braid or twine (a rope, a garland).^[3][17]
6. (figurative) To compose, arranging the parts in order: tecer o enredo de uma peça.^[3][13]
7. (figurative) To plot, to scheme: tecer intrigas.^[3][15][1]
8. (reflexive) To grow dense; to take shape.^[3]
9. (intransitive) Of a small child: to wave its arms and legs.^[14][16]

Word family

• entretecer
• tecedeira
• tecedor
• tecelagem
• tecelão
• tecido
• tecedura

Related words

• teia
• tela
• texto
• têxtil
• Latin texō
• Spanish tejer

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 d e f g h i j k Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tecer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tecer
4. ^ a b c d e 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. tecer
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 450
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tecer
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 488
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8693
9. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. tecer
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tecer
12. ^ 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. tecer
13. ^ 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. tecer
14. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. tecer
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tecer
16. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. tecer
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. tecer