trevo

Forms

trevo m (plural trevos)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *trifolum (“clover”), a form shaped by Ancient Greek τρίφυλλον (tríphullon, “clover”) in place of classical Latin trifolium.^[2][1] Cunha also starts from the classical word, either through a popular form or by a crossing of the Latin and the Greek nouns.^[3] Nascentes and Aurélio describe the same crossing.^[4][5] Wiktionary gives Old Galician-Portuguese trevoo as the medieval form.^[1] The learned doublet is trifólio.^[1]

The Latin noun is formed tri- (“three”) + folium (“leaf”), a calque of the Greek one.^[1][6] The REW sorts the Romance words in two groups: Romanian trifoi, Italian trifoglio and Old French trefeuil continue the Latin word, while French trèfle, Catalan trèvol, Spanish trébol and the Portuguese word continue the Greek one.^[7] The DHLF also traces the Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese and Provençal words to the Greek noun, which French took from the Greek of Marseille.^[8] Corominas, however, has Spanish borrow its word from Catalan.^[9] Estraviz records the same noun, Galician trevo, for the plant.^[10] For the sound changes Nascentes refers to the historical grammars of Meyer-Lübke, Cornu, Nunes and Menéndez Pidal.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's earliest date, 1570, is for the sense in the history of art, the trefoil ornament; he dates the plant sense to Bluteau's dictionary of 1721, and Cunha to Morais's of 1813.^[2][3] The dictionaries had the plant earlier: Barbosa (1611) and Pereira (1697) both have Trevo, erva, rendered by Latin trifolium.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau describes two kinds, the trevo real of the meadows, with three leaves on each stalk, and a wild trevo do mato, following Laguna's commentary on Dioscorides.^[14] Vieira lists the trevo azedo (the same as azedinha), trevo de cheiro, trevo branco and trevo cervino.^[15] Houaiss dates the sense of a road junction with ramps and overpasses to 1895; it is Brazilian.^[2][5]

In Rio Grande do Sul the name goes to wood sorrels (Oxalis), valued as cattle fodder, and in parts of Brazil the dialect surveys of the TLPGP record it for a hand-rolled straw cigarette.^[16][17] In Galician the word also means a cell of the honeycomb.^[10]

Timeline

• 1570 – Houaiss's first date, for the trefoil ornament.^[2]
• 1611 – Barbosa: Trevo, erva.^[12]
• 1697 – Pereira has the same entry.^[13]
• 1721 – Bluteau describes trevo real and trevo do mato.^[14] It is Houaiss's date for the plant sense.^[2]
• 1755 – Folqman renders it by trifolium.^[18]
• 1813 – Morais: a common garden herb.^[19] It is Cunha's first date.^[3]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira lists the kinds of clover.^[15]
• 1895 – Houaiss's date for the road junction.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) clover, a name for various plants whose leaves have three leaflets, especially of the genus Trifolium; also called trifólio.^[2][5][1]
2. (botany) The hare's-foot clover, Trifolium arvense.^[2][20]
3. (botany) The same as azedinha, a wood sorrel.^[2][20]
4. (Brazil) A cloverleaf interchange, a system of raised and sunken roads that avoids level crossings on busy highways.^[2][21]
5. (art history) The same as trifólio, a trefoil ornament.^[2][22]

Word family

• treval
• trevo-azedo
• trevo-branco
• trevo-cervino
• trevo-de-cheiro
• trevo-aquático

Related words

• trifoliado
• trifólio
• Latin trifolium
• Spanish trébol

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 i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. trevo
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. três
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. trevo
5. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. trevo
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. trifolium
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8899
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. trèfle
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. trébol
10. ^ a b Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. trevo
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. trevo
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. trevo
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. trevo
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. trevo
15. ^ a b 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, 813
16. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. trevo
17. ^ 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. trevo
18. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. trevo
19. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 807
20. ^ 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. trevo
21. ^ 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. trevo
22. ^ 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. trevo