verga

Forms

verga f (plural vergas)^[1] Houaiss records verga and virga in the 13th century, uergas in the 14th and vergua in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin virga (“twig, rod, switch”), written Old Galician-Portuguese verga in the oldest texts.^[2][1][3] The learned doublet virga (“flexible rod”) was taken from the same Latin word in 1676.^[4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician verga, Spanish verga, Catalan verga, French verge, Italian verga and Romanian vargă.^[5][1] The French word vergue (“yard of a sail”), the nautical sense of the Portuguese word, is a Norman or Picard form of the same word.^[6][7]

De Vaan tentatively reconstructs *wizg- and Proto-Indo-European *uis-g-, comparing Old Norse visk (“wisp”) and Old High German wisc (“wisp”);^[8][9] Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use both verga and virga, the latter in virga de Jesse, the rod of Jesse of the prophecy.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, a thin flexible stick, was used of the switch used for beating and of the wicker of baskets;^[12][13] Morais (1789) quotes vergas used for a flogging and a magician's rod.^[12][13] In sailing it named the yard from which a sail hangs: Bluteau (1712–1728) explains it as the same as entena, crossing the mast, and Morais records estar de verga d'alto, with the yard hoisted and ready to sail.^[14][12] Houaiss dates the sense “thin bar of metal” to 1836.^[2] In building the word names the lintel over a door or window.^[2][15]

In Rio Grande do Sul verga is the furrow the plough leaves between two rows, and in the countryside of the border region it is a word for the penis of cattle and horses, a sense shared with the Spanish of the Plate.^[16] Dialect surveys in Portugal recorded mar às vergas “rough sea”.^[17]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][10]
• 14th century – the spelling uergas.^[2]
• 15th century – the spelling vergua.^[2]
• 1676 – the learned doublet virga.^[4]
• 1697 – Pereira translates verga as virga and vimen.^[18]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the verga of a ship.^[14]
• 1836 – the sense “thin bar of metal”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thin flexible stick; a lath, a switch.^[2][19][1]
2. Wicker, a flexible strip of wood or osier for making baskets.^[19][20][1]
3. A thin flexible bar of metal.^[2][15]
4. (architecture) A lintel, the beam of stone, wood or concrete over a door or window.^[2][19][1]
5. (nautical) A yard, the spar across a mast from which a sail hangs.^[2][14][1]
6. The front upper part of the opening of a chimney.^[2][19]
7. (Brazil) The furrow left by a plough.^[2][16]
8. (vulgar) The penis.^[2][20][1]
9. (Madeira) Wire.^[2]

Word family

• vergar
• vergalho
• vergalhão

Related words

• virga
• Galician verga
• French vergue

Usage notes

The phrase de verga(s) alta(s), said of a ship, means ready to sail;^[21] ter tempo e verga means to have every chance of doing something.^[21]

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 m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. verga
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. verga
4. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. virga
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9361
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vergue
7. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. vergue
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. virga
10. ^ 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. verga
11. ^ 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. virga
12. ^ a b c 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, 520
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 845
14. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. verga
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. verga
16. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. 2
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. verga
18. ^ 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. verga
19. ^ 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. verga
20. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. verga
21. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9452