camiño de ferro

Galician

Etymology

Attested since 1859. Calque of French chemin de fer.

Noun

camiño de ferro m (plural camiños de ferro)

1. railway, railroad

   Synonyms: ferrocarril, vía, vía férrea, vía de tren

   • 1884, O tío Marcos da Portela, volume 2, number 45, page 1:

     na compaña dos meus bos amigos Benito das Vacalouras e Martiño de Zamora, metínme nun deses wagós do camiño de ferro d'Ourense a Vigo, i anque fumos nel como sardiñas en banasta, non tivemos queixa, porque neso da comparanza das sardiñas, nosoutros éramos das cabezudas, i as que levábamos á beira eran das escochadas, frescas e pequerrechiñas e cun sal

     in the company of my good friends Benito das Vacalouras and Martiño from Zamora, I entered one of those wagons of the railroad from Ourense to Vigo and, even if we travelled packed as sardines, we had no complaint, because on that comparison we were as sardines with head, but those next to us were as headless sardines, fresh and small and salted

References

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “camiño de ferro”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega