trópico

Forms

trópico m (plural trópicos)^[1] The 15th-century record is spelt tropiquo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin tropicus, recorded in Portuguese from the 15th century.^[3][2][4][5] Latin used the adjective in the plural as a noun for the circles parallel to the equator.^[2] The Latin adjective is from Ancient Greek τροπικός (tropikós, “of the turning; of the solstice”), from τροπή (tropḗ, “turn; solstice”).^[1][6][5] Houaiss relates it to τρόπος (trópos, “turn, direction, manner”) and the verb τρέπω (trépō, “to turn”).^[2] Nascentes explains the name: at the solstice the Sun seems to stop and then turn back towards the equator.^[5]

The same Latin word gave Spanish trópico and French tropique, the French word recorded from 1377.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha and Houaiss date the first record, spelt tropiquo, to the 15th century, already in the astronomical sense of either of the two circles parallel to the equator.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In Latin tropicus meant “of the solstice”, and Ausonius called Capricorn tropicus, the sign where the Sun turns back.^[6][9] Morais (1789) defines the Portuguese noun as a circle of the sphere parallel to the equator, marking how far the Sun moves away from it, and counts two of them, one north and one south.^[10] By metonymy the word came to name the hot region between the two circles, the torrid zone, usually in the plural os trópicos.^[2][11] Its adjective use gave ano trópico, the tropical year, and in botany flores trópicas, flowers that open in the morning and close in the evening;^[12][13] Caldas Aulete's original dictionary also records the noun as the name of a seabird of the tropics.^[12][13] The derived adjective tropical is recorded from 1836 and intertropical from 1843.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 15th century – first record, spelt tropiquo.^[2][3]
• 1789 – Morais defines the two tropics, north and south of the equator.^[10]
• 1836 – first record of tropical, in Constâncio's dictionary.^[14]
• 1843 – first record of intertropical.^[15]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira enters the word as a term of astronomy, with a quotation from Braz Luiz d'Abreu.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (geography) Either of the two parallels of the Earth, about 23°27′ north and south of the equator, within which the Sun can stand at the zenith: the trópico de Câncer and the trópico de Capricórnio.^{[2][11][4][17]}
2. (geography, usually in the plural) The region between those two circles, the torrid zone (zona tórrida): viveu muitos anos nos trópicos.^[2][11][17]
3. (astronomy) Either of the two corresponding circles of the celestial sphere, which pass through the solstitial points.^[2][4][17]
4. (ornithology) A seabird of the tropical seas, the tropicbird.^[13][18][12]

Adjective

1. Relating to the tropics; tropical.^[2][11][1]
2. In ano trópico, the tropical year, the time between two passages of the Sun through the spring equinox.^[13][17][18]
3. (botany) Of a flower: opening every morning and closing in the evening.^[2][13]

Word family

• tropical
• intertropical

Related words

• Latin tropicus
• Spanish trópico
• French tropique

Usage notes

Houaiss also has an adjective trópico of medicine, formed from tropia (a deviation of one eye) with the suffix -ico: relating to, causing or marked by tropia.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. trópico
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. trópico
4. ^ a b c 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. trópico
5. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. trópico
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. tropicus
7. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. tropique
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. tropicus
10. ^ 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, 495
11. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. trópico
12. ^ 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. trópico
13. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. trópico
14. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tropical
15. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. intertropical
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, 833
17. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9231
18. ^ 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. trópico