trinta

Forms

trinta m or f^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote treinta, triinta, trijnta, trynta and trinta;^[2] Houaiss also has triita from the 14th century.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin trīgintā (“thirty”), written Old Galician-Portuguese treinta, Old Galician-Portuguese triinta and Old Galician-Portuguese trinta in the oldest texts.^[3][2][4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician trinta, Spanish treinta, Catalan trenta, French trente and Italian trenta.^[5][1]

The Latin numeral is formed from trēs (“three”) and the suffix of the tens -gintā.^[6] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *tridḱómt (“thirty”).^[1]

The Portuguese and Spanish forms point to a Latin stress on the first syllable: Nascentes reports that Seelmann, from a remark of the grammarian Consentius on the barbarism of stressing the Latin word on its first syllable, set up such a form for both languages, while D'Ovidio derived them from the normal stress through the form with ⟨ei⟩.^[7] Nunes accepted the shift of stress and traced the word through the form with ⟨ii⟩.^[7][7] Nascentes's short dictionary also invokes the influence of the Portuguese numerals for three and twenty.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century have all three medieval forms: a trinta dias “within thirty days”, foi depo-los treinta dias “it was after the thirty days” and triinta obreiros “thirty workmen”.^[4] Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century, as treinta.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Notarial books of Noia in Galicia write the numeral as trijnta in 1395, trynta in 1434 and trinta from 1435.^[4] Morais in 1789 adds a card game called trinta, won by the player who makes thirty or comes nearest to it.^[9] The original Caldas Aulete records ficar-se em trinta “to be left empty-handed” in Trás-os-Montes.^[10] In Portuguese dialects the numeral serves in exclamations and, short for trinta diabos, for a very unruly person.^[11]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria among others.^[3][4]
• 1365 – Houaiss's first record of the spelling trinta.^[3]
• 1380–1425 – the Compostela fragment of the Flos Sanctorum uses the word.^[12]
• 1395 – trijnta in a notarial book of Noia.^[4]
• 1542 – trimta in a private letter.^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin triginta.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais records the card game trinta.^[9]

Meanings

Numeral

1. thirty; twenty plus ten (30, XXX).^[3][15][1]
2. thirtieth, in a series: o quarto trinta.^[3][15]

Noun

1. The number thirty, or the figure that writes it.^[3][16]
2. The person or thing in thirtieth place in a series.^[15][16]

Related words

• trigésimo
• três
• Latin trīgintā
• Spanish treinta

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. três
3. ^ 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. trinta
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. trinta
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8901
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. trīgintā
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. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. trinta
9. ^ 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, 492
10. ^ 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. trinta
11. ^ 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. trinta
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. trinta
13. ^ 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. trinta
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. trinta
15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. trinta
16. ^ a b 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. trinta