tocha

Forms

tocha f (plural tochas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French torche, which Houaiss dates to the 12th century and glosses “a twist of straw; twisted inflammable material, a large wax candle, a torch”.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The French word is from Vulgar Latin *torca, an alteration of Late Latin torqua, itself a variant of Latin torques (“twisted collar”), from the verb torqueō (“to twist”).^[2][7][1] Nascentes remarks that the loss of the /r/ in the Portuguese form is still unexplained.^[4]

Silva Bastos and Michaelis instead take the word from Italian torcia, as A. Coelho did.^[8][9][10] Nunes and Sousa da Silveira derive it from Latin torculum, a cord of twisted threads.^[10] Bluteau traced it, after Lorenzo Pignoria, to the Latin verb for “to twist” and its participle tortus (“twisted”), through the Italian word, since the wicks of such candles were twisted threads; he compared Spanish antorcha.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology has hum pedaço de tocha “a piece of torch” in a vocabulary of 1364, and Houaiss and Cunha also date the word to the 14th century.^[12][2][3] The sense is a large wax candle, the oldest one Houaiss gives.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The 16th- and 17th-century dictionaries translate it with Latin words for a wax candle or a torch of twisted rope.^[13][14] Bluteau describes a large square candle of wax with four wicks, and Morais (1789) a large wax candle or torch.^[11][15] The modern senses go on from there to a flaming torch on a pole, a candlestick, brightness, and figuratively the force of a passion.^[2][16][6] In Brazil the word also names the stump left of a broken tree, and the plural tochas lively eyes.^[2][5] Brazilian military slang has acender uma tocha, to go off for a day or a night without leave.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1364 – hum pedaço de tocha in a vocabulary.^[12]
• c. 1525 – first occurrence in the CTA corpus, in the Memorial da Infanta Santa Joana.^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary lists tocha.^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists it.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes a candle with four wicks and discusses the etymology.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as a large wax candle or torch.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large, thick wax candle; brandão.^[2][5][6]
2. A torch: flammable material lit for light or as a signal, usually at the end of a stick; archote, facho: Levavam tochas acesas pela mata.^[2][18][1]
3. A stand with a lamp or candle on top; a candlestick.^[2][6]
4. Bright light, brilliance.^[2][5]
5. (figurative) The strength of a feeling or passion.^[2][16]
6. (Brazil) The part of the trunk left standing of a broken tree.^[2][5]
7. (in the plural) Lively eyes.^[2][9]

Word family

• tocheiro
• tocheira

Related words

• torcer
• French torche
• Italian torcia
• Spanish antorcha

Usage notes

In Brazilian military slang acender uma tocha “to light a torch” means to leave the unit for a day or a night without permission.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. tocha
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tocha
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tocha
5. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tocha
6. ^ a b c d 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. tocha
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. torche
8. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. tocha
9. ^ a b 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. tocha
10. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 497
11. ^ 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. tocha
12. ^ a b 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. tocha
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tocha
14. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tocha
15. ^ 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, 463
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. tocha
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. tocha
18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9010