vidro

Forms

vidro m (plural vidros)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote vidro and uidro, and Houaiss records uydro in the 14th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vitreus (“made of glass”), an adjective used as a noun, “a thing of glass”, from vitrum (“glass”).^[1][2][4] The oldest texts already write Old Galician-Portuguese vidro.^[2] Nascentes explains the vowel: the short /i/ of the first syllable stayed /i/ through the influence of the following yod, which was then absorbed, and he rejects a derivation from the noun itself.^[4][5] Houaiss, Aurélio and the DLP derive the word directly from the Latin noun.^[3][6][7]

The same Latin adjective gave Galician vidro and Spanish vidrio, recorded in Spanish from Berceo, while Italian vetro, French verre, Occitan veire and Sardinian bidru continue the noun.^[8][9][1]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *wedro- (“glass”) and, following Szemerényi, Proto-Indo-European *wed-ro- (“water-like”), comparing a Middle Iranian word for glass derived from “water”.^[10][1] Wiktionary also mentions a substrate origin shared with the Germanic and Greek words for woad, a plant that Latin named after the colour of glass.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria tell of a Jew of Bourges who knew how to make glass (un judeu / ouve que fazer sabia / vidro), and elsewhere speak of “a glass vessel of very fine shape” (un vidro de mui bela talla).^[2] The Crónica Geral of 1344 has vaso de vidro “glass vessel”, and the Horto do Esposo the spelling uidro.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) and Pereira (1697) render the word with Latin vitrum, and Barbosa (1611) adds vitreus for “made of glass”.^[11][12][13] Bluteau gives a long account of how glass is made from white pebbles or washed sand with alkaline salt or fern ash.^[14]

Later senses are a small glass bottle, a pane of glass in a window or frame, a lens, and figuratively a fragile thing or a touchy person.^[3][6][15] In Brazil it can also mean a glass of spirits.^[15] Galician and some dialects of Portugal also use it for ice.^[16][17] The word passed into Guinea-Bissau Creole as bidru, into Tetum as vidru and into Japanese as ビードロ (bīdoro).^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – vidro in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3]
• 1344 – vaso de vidro in the Crónica Geral.^[2]
• 14th century – the spelling uydro.^[3]
• c. 1430 – vidro in the Horto do Esposo.^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin vitrum.^[11]
• 1611 – Barbosa adds cousa de vidro, Latin vitreus.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes how glass is made.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. glass, the hard, brittle, usually transparent material made by melting sand with soda or potash: uma jarra de vidro azul.^[3][6][1]
2. An object made of glass, in particular a small bottle or flask: um vidro de xarope.^[3][19]
3. A pane of glass fitted in a window, door or frame: Partiu-se o vidro da montra.^[3][15]
4. A lens of spectacles or of a monocle.^[3][15]
5. (figurative) A fragile thing, something delicate that is easily spoilt.^[3][6]
6. (figurative) A very touchy person, easily offended.^[3][6]
7. (Brazil) A glass or shot of spirits.^[15]

Word family

• vidraça
• vidraceiro
• vidrar
• vidrado
• vidreiro
• vidraria

Related words

• vítreo
• Spanish vidrio

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. vidro
3. ^ 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. vidro
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vidro
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 525
6. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vidro
7. ^ 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. vidro
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 804
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vidro
12. ^ 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. vidro
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vidro
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. vidro
15. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. vidro
16. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. vidro
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. vidro
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. vidro
19. ^ 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. vidro