vulva

Forms

vulva f (plural vulvas)^[1] The 15th-century record is spelt uulua, with ⟨u⟩ for /v/.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vulva (“womb”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun also had the older form volva.^[3][1] Houaiss gives its senses as “vulva, uterus, womb; sow's womb; belly; skin of a fruit”, and Lewis & Short define the older form as “wrapper, covering”, used of the covering of fungi and seeds and especially of the womb.^[2][5] The same Latin word is Spanish vulva, Italian vulva and French vulve.^[6]

Wiktionary derives the Latin word from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, wind”), with Sanskrit उल्ब (ulba) as a cognate; the OLD too compares the Sanskrit word.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the first record, spelt uulua, to the 15th century, from the slips of the index of medieval Portuguese; the sense is anatomical.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Vieira gives the anatomical sense for women and for the females of some animals, and also an older anatomical name for a blind opening in the brain.^[8] The modern dictionaries define the external female genitals of mammals and list their parts.^[2][9] Ferreira's 1975 dictionary names popular synonyms of north-eastern Brazil, such as tabaca, periquita and perereca.^[10] The REW records the Latin word in popular form in Portuguese as volva with the sense “bulge”.^[11] Cunha lists the botanical volva (1858), a borrowing of volve, from the scientific Latin form.^[3]

Timeline

• 15th century – first record, uulua.^[2][3]
• 1858 – first record of the botanical volva.^[3]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira defines it as a term of anatomy.^[8]
• 1975 – Ferreira lists the north-eastern Brazilian popular synonyms.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The vulva: the external female genital organs of mammals, made up in women of the monte pubiano, the labia, the clitóris and the vestíbulo of the vagina.^[2][12][1]

Related words

• volva
• vulvar
• Latin vulva

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vulva
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. vulva
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vulva
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. volva
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 529
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. uulua
8. ^ 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, 1013
9. ^ 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. vulva
10. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 1498
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9470
12. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vulva