semilha

Portuguese

FWOTD – 30 August 2021

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish semilla (“seed”), from Latin semen (“seed”),^[1]^[2] possibly from a label accompanying the first potatoes arrived in Madeira from the Canary Islands that was mistaken as identifying the name of the plant.^[3]

Pronunciation

(Brazil) IPA^(key): /seˈmi.ʎɐ/
- (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /seˈmi.ʎa/

(Portugal) IPA^(key): /sɨˈmi.ʎɐ/

Rhymes: -iʎɐ
Hyphenation: se‧mi‧lha

Noun

semilha f (plural semilhas)

(Madeira) potato
Synonym: batata
- 1848, Revista universal Lisbonense, volume 8:
  as semilhas (batatas) que, na decadência do vinho, eram o principal recurso da gente do campo, perderam-se, como em toda a parte.
  the potatoes that, with the decline of the wine, were the main resource of the country folk, were lost, like it happened everywhere else.
- 1921, Fernando Augusto da Silva, Elucidário Madeirense:
  Morreu uma boa parte da população madeirense […] por haver faltado a semilha
  The failure of the potato crop resulted in the death of a high number of Madeirans

Related terms

semente f

References

^ “semilha”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
^ “semilha”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025
^ Ciberdúvidas: Semilha

[1] “semilha”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025

[2] “semilha”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

[3] Ciberdúvidas: Semilha

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