til

til¹ tilde

Etymology tree of til¹

inherited borrowed derived

Spanish tilde

Portuguese til

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈt͡ʃiw/, [ˈt͡ʃiʊ̯]^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈtil/, [ˈtiɫ]^[1]
• Portugal, Southern: /ˈti.li/^[1]

Forms

til m (plural tis or tiles)^[1] Houaiss records the unshortened tilde in 1619, and Nascentes calls it the old form.^[2][3]

Etymology

The word for the tilde is borrowed from Spanish tilde, shortened, according to Houaiss, Aurélio and the DLP.^[2][4][5] The Spanish word, recorded from 1433, is in Corominas's view a semi-popular doublet of título “title”, from Latin titulus (“inscription, label, sign”), which came through Old Catalan title or Old Occitan tille.^[2] Cunha too derives it from the Latin word through Catalan or Provençal, while Wiktionary and Priberam take it from the Provençal word.^[6][1][7] The REW lists it, with telde (“stroke over a letter”), among the outcomes of the Latin word.^[8]

The loss of the last syllable is explained in two ways: Nascentes, after Cavacas, takes it for a result of sentence phonetics, the final syllable falling away before a following word in phrases such as ⟨tilde de…⟩.^[2][3] Corominas supposes a singular drawn from a plural connected with the Provençal form.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date for the word is 1540, in the grammatical sense: the sign written over a vowel to show it is nasal.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) explains that the stroke stands for an omitted m or n after a vowel, as in tẽpo for tempo, and that it also marks abbreviations such as q̃ for que; the old Caldas Aulete adds that it originally replaced the final n or m of a syllable, as in tãto and quãto.^[9][10] Morais (1789) defines it as the sign put over nasal vowels.^[11]

Morais also records hum til “a tilde”, that is “the least thing”, and Vieira the phrase sobrancelhas de til “very fine eyebrows”, then held a mark of beauty.^[11][12] The figurative sense “trifle” is in the modern dictionaries.^[7][13][1]

Timeline

• 1433 – Spanish tilde is recorded.^[2]
• 1540 – first record of til.^[2]
• 1619 – the full form tilde.^[2]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the uses of the sign.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais records hum til “the least thing”.^[11]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira records sobrancelhas de til.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (grammar) The tilde (˜), the diacritic (diacrítico) that marks a nasal vowel in Portuguese, as in mão and limões.^[2][7][1]
2. (figurative) The least thing, a trifle: Não mudou um til ao texto.^[7][5][1]

til² lime tree

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈt͡ʃiw/, [ˈt͡ʃiʊ̯]^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈtil/, [ˈtiɫ]^[1]
• Portugal, Southern: /ˈti.li/^[1]

Forms

til m (plural tiles)^[7]

Etymology

The word for the lime tree is a clipping from Portuguese tília.^[2][3][13] The DLP instead derives it from Old Occitan til.^[5] The base word is from Latin tilia (“lime tree”).^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates it to 1635, as another name for the lime tree; his first date for tília is 1624.^[2][14]

Semantic evolution

Pereira's Thesouro (1697) has Til, arvore, glossed with Latin tilia, and Morais (1789) enters the tree under til too.^[15][11] Today it is mainly poetic: Aurélio quotes Antero de Quental's line A folhinha do til que se balança “the little leaf of the lime that sways”.^[4][7] In the Atlantic islands the name belongs to a different tree, of the laurel family, native to Madeira, the Azores and the Canaries.^[5][7]

Timeline

• 1624 – first record of tília.^[14]
• 1635 – first record of til “lime tree”.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira lists Til, arvore.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (poetic) The lime tree, the same as tília.^[2][7][13]
2. (botany) A tree of the laurel family of the laurel forests of Madeira, the Azores and the Canaries, with dark wood that smells unpleasant when freshly cut.^[5][7]