côvado

Portuguese

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese côbedo, from Latin cubitum (“cubit”), possibly taken as a semi-learned term. Compare the likely inherited doublet coto and the later borrowing cúbito. Cognate with Spanish codo and possibly coto, Galician cóbado, and Catalan colze and colzo. Cf. also cotovelo.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈko.va.du/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈko.va.du/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈko.va.do/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈko.vɐ.du/ [ˈko.vɐ.ðu]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈko.vɐ.du/ [ˈko.vɐ.ðu]
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈko.bɐ.du/ [ˈko.βɐ.ðu]

• Hyphenation: cô‧va‧do

Noun

côvado m (plural côvados)

1. (historical, measure) covado, Portuguese cubit, a traditional unit of length equal to about 0.6 meters and roughly approximating the length of a forearm and hand

   Synonym: cúbito

Usage notes

The notional côvado (côvado craveiro) of 24 polegadas was previously lengthened by 8 linhas (³⁄₄ polegada) for the long côvado (côvado avantejado) in some commercial contexts.

Hyponyms

• côvado craveiro, côvado crav., côvado avantejado, côvado avant.

Coordinate terms

• dedo (¹⁄₃₆ côvado), polegada (¹⁄₂₄ côvado), palmo (¹⁄₃ côvado), pé (¹⁄₂ côvado), vara (1+²⁄₃ côvados), passo (2+¹⁄₂ côvados), toesa (3 côvados), braça (3+¹⁄₃ côvados)