torta

Forms

torta f (plural tortas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin torta (“round loaf”) according to Nascentes and Aurélio.^[2][3] Houaiss gives the same Latin word, glossed “pastry, pie”.^[4] For Cunha, instead, it is borrowed from Italian torta, itself from the Vulgar Latin word.^[5]

The same word is Galician torta, Spanish torta, Catalan torta, French tourte and Romanian turtă.^[1][6]

The origin of the Latin word is disputed.^[7][8] Porto Editora takes it as the feminine of the past participle of torqueō (“to twist”), “twisted”, and the DLP derives the Portuguese noun from torto.^[9][10] Corominas objects that the Late Latin word has a long /oː/, which separates it from the participle, and proposes a Vulgar Latin contraction of Greek “the little loaf”, the diminutive Ancient Greek ἀρτίδιον (artídion) of ἄρτος (ártos, “bread”);^[7][8] Nocentini prefers this explanation.^[7][8] Wiktionary sets beside it a Latin turta, a kind of pastry of obscure origin recorded on the Vindolanda tablets.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cantiga d'escarnho of Alfonso X already speaks of women who quisessen tortas amassar “wanted to knead tortas”, where Lapa's glossary explains the word as a flour pastry.^[11][12] Houaiss dates the noun from a text of 1593, and Cunha to the 16th century.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Pereira's Thesouro of 1697 equates torta with a cake baked in the embers.^[13] Bluteau describes a well-kneaded dough, like that of ordinary pasties, in which meat, fish, milk or fruit is baked, and repeats the derivation from Latin tortus because of its round shape.^[14] Morais and Vieira define it as a pasty of thick dough filled with pigeons, meat, fish, fruit or cream.^[15][16] In Brazil the word is now the usual name of a pie or layered cake, while in Portugal it names a sweet Swiss roll.^[4][3][1] Brazil also uses it for the cake of pressed oilseeds used as fertiliser and fodder.^[17][4]

Timeline

• 1593 – first dated record of the noun.^[4]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses torta as a cake baked in the embers.^[13]
• 1721 – first record of torteira, a pan for baking tortas.^[18]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the filled pastry.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais defines the word as a pasty of thick dough, and the Spanish diminutive tortilha enters the dictionaries.^[19][20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pie or tart: a baked dish of pastry with a sweet or savoury filling, with or without a pastry lid: torta de limão, torta de palmito.^[4][3][1]
2. (Brazil) A layered cake, filled and usually iced.^[3][10]
3. (Portugal) A Swiss roll: a thin sponge spread with a filling and rolled up.^[4][9][1]
4. (Brazil) The cake of crushed seeds left after oil is pressed from them, used as fertiliser and fodder.^[4][17]
5. (Portugal, viticulture) The turn a vine cane makes on itself before it is tied to its stake.^[4][10]
6. (Portugal, informal) Pain from the contractions of the womb after childbirth.^[4][9]
7. (Portugal, informal) drunkenness.^[4][21]
8. (heraldry) A round charge, always of a colour.^[4]

Word family

• torteira
• tortinha

Related words

• tortilha
• torto
• Spanish torta

Usage notes

Torta is also the feminine of the adjective torto “crooked”, and Portuguese popular speech uses it as a noun for a woman with a squint.^[17][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. torta
3. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. torta
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. torta
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. torta
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. torta
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. torta
8. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9060
10. ^ 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. torta
11. ^ 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. torta
12. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. torta
13. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. torta
14. ^ 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. torta
15. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 789
16. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 775
17. ^ a b c 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. torta
18. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. torteira
19. ^ 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, 470
20. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tortilha
21. ^ 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. torta