travesso

Forms

travesso (feminine travessa, masculine plural travessos, feminine plural travessas)^[1] The 14th-century texts have de trauesso and atraveso, the 15th-century ones travesso and trauesos.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin trānsversus (“lying across, transverse”).^[2][3][1][4] Nascentes suggests that the sense “restless” came from someone forever crossing from one side to the other.^[5] Wiktionary treats the “mischievous” adjective as probably the same word, and Houaiss, Cunha and the DLP derive both senses from the Latin adjective.^[1][2][3][6]

The same Latin word is Italian traverso, French travers, Catalan través and Spanish travieso.^[4] The Latin adjective is the past participle of trānsvertō (“to turn across”), from trāns- and vertō (“to turn”); it goes back to Proto-Italic *trānsworssos.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the adjective to the 14th century, with the sense “set across, transverse”, in phrases such as de trauesso.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) and Pereira (1697) already render travesso by Latin maleficus, and Bluteau explains it as “wicked, malicious, fond of playing tricks”, with moço travesso “a naughty boy”.^[8][9][10] Houaiss dates this sense from Morais (1789) and places its rise about the beginning of the 18th century.^[2] Houaiss and Cunha date the derivative travessura “prank” to the 13th century.^[11][12]

The spatial sense lives on in fixed phrases: linha travessa “collateral line”, mar travesso a sea that strikes the ship across the bow, rua travessa a side street.^[13] From the last came the noun travessa “side street; crossbeam”.^[2][14] The phrase mão travessa is the breadth of a hand.^[15][6]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records, as de trauesso and atraveso.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Barbosa renders it by Latin maleficus “mischievous”.^[8]
• 1635 – travesso in a private letter.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as “inclined to pranks”.^[17]
• 1813 – Morais distinguishes travesso with open /ɛ/ “transverse” from close /e/ “mischievous”.^[2]
• 1881 – Caldas Aulete recommends close /e/ for both.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Set across; transverse, oblique.^[2][18][1]
2. Placed at the side; lateral; collateral.^[2][6]
3. Facing; opposite.^[2][18]
4. (with close /e/) Restless and noisy; mischievous, naughty: um miúdo travesso.^[2][1][19]
5. (with close /e/) Sly, given to pranks that deceive others.^[2]
6. (with close /e/) Witty, amusing.^[2][20]
7. (Portugal) Of a domestic animal, not of pure breed.^[6]

Word family

• travessura
• travessa

Related words

• atravessar
• través
• transverso
• Spanish travieso

Usage notes

Today travesso “transverse” has open /ɛ/ and travesso “mischievous” close /e/, each with the same vowel in the feminine travessa.^[2][19] Houaiss notes that the expected outcome of the Latin is /e/, as in avesso from Latin adversus, and that Caldas Aulete recommended it for both senses in 1881, while Morais (1813) and Constâncio (1836) already marked the difference.^[2] He explains the open vowel by the frequent feminine phrases such as rua travessa and porta travessa, reinforced when the sense “mischievous”, always with close /e/, arose about 1700.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. travesso
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. travesso
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8860
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. travesso
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. travesso
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. transuersus
8. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. travesso
9. ^ 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. travesso
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. travesso
11. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. travessura
12. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. travessura
13. ^ 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, 801
14. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. travessa
15. ^ 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. travesso
16. ^ 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. travesso
17. ^ 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, 486
18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. travesso
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. travesso
20. ^ 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. travesso