toalha

Forms

toalha f (plural toalhas)^[1] The 13th-century texts write toalla;^[2][3] Houaiss records toalhas with ⟨lh⟩ in 1365.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan toalha (“towel”), which goes back through Medieval Latin toallia to Frankish *thwahlja (“towel, washcloth”).^[2][4][1] Houaiss and Cunha give the Occitan source and the Frankish word, and the Romance etymological dictionary traces the same Frankish word to Occitan, whence it passed to Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.^[5]

The same Frankish word gave French touaille and, through Occitan, Italian tovaglia “tablecloth” and Spanish toalla.^[5][1] The old form was Old Spanish toaja, about 1250;^[6][7] Corominas thinks the modern Spanish form had to be taken from Italian or Catalan.^[6][7] The Germanic word is related to Old High German dwahila.^[6]

Older scholars proposed other sources: Adolfo Coelho took the word from Old High German, Figueiredo from a hypothetical derivative of Latin toga, and Bluteau from the Italian word.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1204 already lists toalias ad refectorium “towels for the refectory”, with the Romance word in a Latin text.^[3] The first Galician-Portuguese records are in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century: con hũa toalla “with a towel” and en branca toalla “in a white cloth”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss gives the cloth spread on the table at meals as the first sense, and the cloth for drying the hands, the face or the body as the second;^[2][4] Cunha has the two senses in the other order.^[2][4] Morais (1813) defines the word as a linen cloth for drying the hands, and adds an old sense: a piece of the same cloth that women once wore on the head.^[10] The nuns' linen head-cloth and the cloth that covers the altar are still listed today.^[11][12]

From the shape of the cloth came the sense “an extensive layer”, as in toalha de água “a large expanse of water” and the geological toalha freática “water table”.^[2][12]

Portuguese passed the word to many languages of Asia: tuala, तौलिया (tauliyā), तुवालो (tuvālo) and തൂവാല (tūvāla).^[1]

Timeline

• 1204 – a Latin charter lists toalias for a refectory.^[3]
• 13th century – toalla in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[3][2]
• 1365 – the spelling toalhas.^[2]
• 1500s – first record of the derivative atoalhado.^[4]
• 1525 – toalha in the Memorial da Infanta Santa Joana (witness after 1525).^[13]
• 1542 – toalhas in a private letter.^[14]
• 1712 – Bluteau derives the word from Italian tovaglia.^[9]
• 1813 – Morais records the old sense of a woman's head-cloth.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tablecloth, the cloth spread over the table at meals; in full toalha de mesa.^[2][15][1]
2. A towel for drying the hands, the face or the body: toalha de rosto, toalha de banho.^[2][16][1]
3. An altar cloth, usually trimmed with lace; in full toalha de altar.^[2][11]
4. A linen cloth worn on the head by nuns.^[11][12]
5. Anything with the form or look of a towel; an extensive layer or sheet, as of water: toalha de água, toalha freática.^[2][12]
6. (regional, Portugal) The membrane that wraps a pig's intestines.^[17]

Word family

• atoalhado
• toalheiro
• toalhete
• toalhinha
• toalhita

Related words

• Spanish toalla
• Italian tovaglia
• French touaille

Usage notes

Jogar a toalha (Brazil) and deitar a toalha ao chão (Portugal) mean “to throw in the towel, to give up”.^[1]

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 h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. toalha
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. toalla
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. toalha
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8720
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 513
7. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. toalla
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 496
9. ^ 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. toalha
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 779
11. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. toalha
12. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9007
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. toalha
14. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. toalha
15. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. toalha
16. ^ 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. toalha
17. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. toalha