alfaça

Old Galician-Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic الْخَسّ (al-ḵass).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /alˈfat͡sa/
• Rhymes: -at͡sa
• Hyphenation: al‧fa‧ça

Noun

alfaça f (plural alfaças)

1. (Portugal) lettuce
   • 1414, “Da uiꝛgem q̃ moꝛdeo aalfaça [Of the virgin that bit the lettuce]” (chapter XI), in Estêvão Anes Lourido, transl., [dialogo de ſam Gꝛ^egoꝛio], book I, translation of Dialogi by Pope Gregory I, unnumbered page:

     Contou ainda ſam Gregoꝛẏo q̃ huũ dia hũa ſrgent de deꝯ q̃ uȷuẏa no mͦ. daq̃las virgẽẽs. de ſuſo dto q̃ el auẏ ade ueer entrou na oꝛta deſſe mͦ. ⁊ uẏu hũa alfaça muẏ fremoſa ⁊ cobiȷçou a.

     Saint Gregory further said that, one day, a God's servant that lived in the monastery, one of those above-said virgins that he should see, entered the vegetable garden and saw a beatiful lettuce, which she coveted.

Descendants

• Portuguese: alface

References

• Antônio Geraldo da Cunha (2020–2025) “alface”, in Vocabulário histórico-cronológico do Português Medieval (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa