terreno

Forms

terreno (feminine terrena, masculine plural terrenos, feminine plural terrenas)^[1] The medieval form was terreo, also written terrẽo and tarreo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin terrēnus (“of earth; earthly”).^[3][4][1] The medieval word was Old Galician-Portuguese terreo, and Wiktionary derives the modern word from it.^[1] Houaiss records the noun in that form in 1272 and the adjective in the modern form only in 1572.^[1][3][2] Nascentes, on the other hand, calls the modern word learned.^[4]

The same Latin word is Galician terreo and Galician tarreu, Spanish terreno, Asturian terrenu, Catalan terreny, Italian terreno and French terrain, the French form with a change of suffix.^[5][6][1][7]

The Latin adjective is formed from terra (“earth, land”) with the suffix -ēnus.^[8] Wiktionary tentatively traces it to Proto-Italic *terzeznos, from a neuter s-stem of the root Proto-Indo-European *ters- (“dry”), or else to the locative of the Latin noun with -nus.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters write terrenia in 907 and terrenus in 1025.^[3][2] In Galician-Portuguese the noun appears in 1272, con su terreo “with its land”, then in 1278, o terreo da yglesa “the land of the church”, and in 1282, pelo terrẽo da dauandicta Eluira “along the land of the aforesaid Elvira”.^[2] The first sense is thus a piece of land.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In notarial books of Noia and Rianjo the medieval terreo is a plot of farmland or a piece of ground that can be sold or built on.^[2] The adjective “earthly, of the earth” came back in the 16th century in the Latin form; the original Caldas Aulete and Aurélio quote Camões for a cor terrena e pálida “the earthy, pale colour”.^[3][9][10] Morais (1813) defines the adjective as “of earth, terrestrial, worldly”.^[11]

The noun widened from a plot of land to the soil considered for its nature, to geological strata, and to the topography of a battlefield; figuratively it means a field of activity or knowledge, as in perder terreno “to lose ground”.^[3][12][13] In medicine it is the set of factors that favour a disease.^[3]

Timeline

• 907 – a Latin charter has terrenia.^[3]
• 1025 – terrenus in a Latin charter.^[3][2]
• 1272 – con su terreo in a Galician text.^[2][3]
• 1282 – terrẽo in a charter.^[2]
• 1288 – the variant tarreo.^[2]
• 1572 – first record of the adjective spelt terreno.^[3]
• 1813 – Morais defines the adjective as “terrestrial, worldly”.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the Earth; terrestrial (terrestre).^[3][10][1]
2. Of this world, material as opposed to spiritual; worldly (mundano): os bens terrenos.^[9][10][1]
3. Like earth or of the colour of earth; earthy (terroso).^[3][10]

Noun

1. A plot of land, the unbuilt part of a property; land as real estate.^[3][1]
2. An area of land of some size.^[3][12]
3. ground, soil considered for its nature: terreno argiloso.^[3][12]
4. Land fit for cultivation; a field (campo).^[3][10]
5. (geology) A stratum or group of rock layers of the same age.^[12]
6. (military) The terrain, the topography considered for strategy.^[3]
7. (figurative) A field of activity or knowledge: A química é o terreno dela.^[3][10][1]
8. (medicine) The set of bodily conditions that favour the onset of a disease.^[3]

Related words

• terra
• térreo
• terrestre
• terreiro
• Latin terrēnus
• Spanish terreno

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. terreo
3. ^ 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. terreno
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. terreno
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. terrenus
6. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. tarreu
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. terrain
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. terrēnus
9. ^ 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. terreno
10. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. terreno
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 770
12. ^ a b c d 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. terreno
13. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8938