trilhar

Forms

trilhar (first-person singular present trilho, first-person singular preterite trilhei, past participle trilhado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin trībulō (“to press; to thresh”), written Old Galician-Portuguese trilhar in the old language.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin verb is formed from trībulum (“threshing sledge”).^[1][5] The learned tribular is a doublet of the same Latin verb.^[1]

The same Latin verb is Spanish trillar, Galician trillar, Catalan trillar, Italian trebbiare and Romanian treiera.^[6][7] The REW notes that the Romance words everywhere name threshing with the threshing board or by driving animals over the spread grain.^[6]

Nascentes (1955) counts ⟨lh⟩ from the Latin cluster /bl/ as the regular outcome, but in his later dictionary he says the treatment of the cluster in Portuguese and Spanish has not been properly explained;^[7][8] Leite de Vasconcelos accepted a borrowing through Spanish.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's 13th-century form is trilla.^[2] In a cantiga d'escarnho Afonso X writes trilhá-las-edes ena pia con esses ca[l]canhares “you will tread them in the trough with those heels”, in the sense “to tread, trample”; another cantiga says ca ja nen un boi non trilha / en Oscos “for not even an ox threshes in Oscos now”.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The dictionaries of Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) translate the verb with Latin tero “to rub, wear”, and Barbosa adds the threshing board, Latin tribulum.^[11][12] Bluteau (1712) gives “to tread while walking”, trilhar hum caminho “to go along a road many times”, beside “to thresh with the trilho”.^[13] Morais (1789) adds beating flax and trilhar hum pé “to bruise a foot”, and Vieira records the figurative trilhar as vias da virtude “to follow the path of virtue”.^[14][15]

In rural Portugal the verb still names threshing on the threshing floor, done by the animals or with the trilho, and it also means “to hurt, bruise”.^[16] Porto Editora gives “to pinch, squeeze”.^[17] Cunha dates the back-formations trilha “threshing” to the 16th century and trilho “path, track” to the 18th.^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, as trilla, and trilhá-las-edes in a cantiga of Afonso X.^[2][9]
• 14th century – Houaiss's first record of the form trilhar.^[2]
• post 1450 – trilhar in the Livro das tres vertudes.^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates trilhar by Latin tero.^[11]
• 1611 – Barbosa names the trilho de trilhar o pão nas eyras, the board for threshing grain on the threshing floor.^[12]
• 1712 – Bluteau records trilhar hum caminho.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais adds trilhar hum pé.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To thresh (grain) with a threshing board or by treading.^[2][4][1]
2. To crush, grind.^[2][1]
3. To beat or tread (flax, cacao).^[2][19]
4. To break into small pieces.^[2][19]
5. To bruise, hurt.^[2][17]
6. To mark with footprints or tracks.^[2][19]
7. To follow, go along (a path or direction): Trilharam o caminho da serra.^[2][19][1]
8. (figurative) To follow (a rule or way of life): trilhar o caminho da honestidade.^[19][4]
9. To open a way through.^[2][19][1]
10. To pinch, squeeze, jam.^[17][1]

Word family

• trilha
• trilho

Related words

• tribular
• tribulação
• Latin trībulum
• Spanish trillar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. trilhar
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. trilhar
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. trilhar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. trībulō
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8885
7. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 507
8. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. trilhar
9. ^ 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. trilhar
10. ^ 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. trilhar
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. trilhar
12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. trilhar
13. ^ 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. trilhar
14. ^ 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, 491
15. ^ 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, 819
16. ^ 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. trilhar
17. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9191
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. trilhar
19. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. trilhar