telha

Forms

telha f (plural telhas)^[1] Houaiss records telia in 1179, tella in the 13th century and telha in 1365;^[2][3] Cunha has tella in the 13th century and telha in the 14th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *tegla, from Latin tēgula (“roof tile”).^[1][2][3][4] The oldest texts write Old Galician-Portuguese tella, later Old Galician-Portuguese telha.^[3][2] Cunha compares the learned tégula.^[3]

The same Latin word is Italian tegola, French tuile, Occitan teula, Catalan teula and Spanish teja, and German Ziegel was borrowed from it.^[5] García de Diego adds Galician tella.^[6]

The Latin noun is formed from tegō (“to cover”) with the diminutive suffix -ula.^[7][1] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“to cover”), the root of Ancient Greek τέγος (tégos, “roof”) and Lithuanian stógas (“roof”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date, 1179 with the form telia, comes from Machado's dating.^[2] Cunha's first record is tella in the 13th century.^[3] The derivative telhado “roof” is dated by Houaiss to 976.^[9] Cardoso in 1569 and Barbosa in 1611 gloss telha with the Latin tegula, and Barbosa adds that it also means the gutter of a roof.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Morais in 1789 describes tiles as pieces of clay fired in kilns and laid on laths or boards to cover houses, and records casa de telha vã, a house with no ceiling under the tiles, and de telhas abaixo “here below, in this world”.^[12] In 1813 he adds a women's hat with the brims turned up like a tile, a sense Houaiss labels Portuguese.^[13][2]

By metonymy the word came to mean the house where one lives, and a spout of a fountain made from a tile.^[2][14] In informal use it means a fixed idea or whim, as in dar na telha “to take it into one's head”, and in Brazil also the head or mind.^[2][15][16] The printing, nautical and masonic senses are later technical uses.^[2]

Timeline

• 976 – Houaiss's first date for telhado.^[9]
• 1179 – Houaiss's first date, with the form telia.^[2]
• 13th century – tella.^[3]
• 1365 – the spelling telha.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses telha with the Latin tegula.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais records casa de telha vã and de telhas abaixo.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais records the women's hat called telha.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tile, especially a roof tile of fired clay or of another material.^[2][17][1]
2. (by metonymy) A house or home.^[2][15]
3. A fountain spout made of a tile or a piece of one.^[2][14]
4. (Brazil, informal) The head, the mind.^[2][16]
5. (informal) A fixed idea; a whim or mania: dar na telha.^[2][15]
6. (Portugal, historical) A women's hat with the brims turned up at the sides.^[2][13]
7. (printing) A curved stereotype plate fitted to the cylinder of a rotary press; a part of the ink fountain that regulates the flow of ink.^[2][17]
8. (nautical) A wooden batten on the yard; an iron flange at the foot of the bitts.^[2][17]
9. (freemasonry) Each course of a banquet.^[2][18]

Word family

• telhado
• telhar
• telheiro
• destelhar
• retelhar

Related words

• tégula
• Latin tēgula
• Spanish teja

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. telha
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. telha
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. telha
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8618
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. tegula
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. tēgula
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. telhado
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. telha
11. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. telha
12. ^ 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, 448
13. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 760
14. ^ a b 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. telha
15. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. telha
16. ^ a b 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. telha
17. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. telha
18. ^ 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. telha