tosse

Forms

tosse f (plural tosses)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tussis (“cough”), already written Old Galician-Portuguese tosse in the medieval texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes and Aurélio start from a popular form *tusse beside the classical accusative.^[4][5] The same Latin word is Galician tose, Spanish tos, Catalan tos, French toux, Italian tosse and Romanian tuse.^[6][1] Old Spanish also had a variant tosse, still used by Nebrija.^[7] The verb tossir goes back separately to the Latin derivative tussiō (“to have a cough”).^[8]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain: de Vaan finds a link with tundō (“to beat”) conceivable in meaning but not in form, and suggests an expressive doubling of the s or a pure imitation of the sound.^[9] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *tud-tí-s (“cough”), from *(s)tewd-, with the doubled s from onomatopoeia.^[1] The DHLF finds no Indo-European counterpart and compares only Latvian tust (“to breathe noisily”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the Cantigas de Santa Maria tells of a man whom filló-o tosse tan forte “so strong a cough seized him”.^[10] Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau in 1712 describes the cough as a violent effort of the chest to expel what troubles it and distinguishes the dry and the moist cough.^[11] Morais in 1789 adds tosse seca, the cough that brings nothing up.^[12] Tosse convulsa and in Brazil tosse comprida and tosse de guariba name whooping cough.^[13][5]

Slang gave the word other senses: Silva Bastos and the original Caldas Aulete record it for “hunger”, and Houaiss and the Porto Editora dictionary for “lack of money” and “ill will, sulkiness”.^{[14][13][2][15]} Wiktionary adds the familiar sense “a cold”.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – tosse in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[10][2][3]
• c. 1430 – tosse in the Horto do Esposo (manuscript of 1390–1437).^[16]
• 1545 – the spelling tose in a private letter.^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses tosse with Latin tussis and tussicula.^[18]
• 1659 – the spelling toce.^[2]
• 1712 – Bluteau describes the dry and the moist cough.^[11]
• 1912 – Silva Bastos records the slang sense “hunger”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cough: a sudden, noisy expulsion of air from the lungs: Esta tosse não me deixa dormir.^[2][5][1]
2. (informal) Lack of money.^[2][15][13]
3. (informal) Ill will; sulkiness.^[2][15]
4. (familiar) A common cold.^[1]

Word family

• antitosse

Related words

• tossicar
• tossidela
• tossir
• Latin tussis
• Galician tose
• Spanish tos

Usage notes

In Brazil ver o que é bom para a tosse “to see what is good for a cough” means to suffer the consequences of what one has done.^[5][13] In Portugal tirar a tosse a alguém means to kill someone or to reduce them to nothing.^[15][19]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tosse
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tossir
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tosse
5. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tosse
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9016
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 565
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. toux
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. tussis
10. ^ 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. tosse
11. ^ 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. tosse
12. ^ 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, 471
13. ^ a b c d 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. tosse
14. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. tosse
15. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9065
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. tosse
17. ^ 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. tosse
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tosse
19. ^ 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. tosse