xofre

Galician

Xofre

Etymology

Circa 1300. Already attested in Old Galician and Old Galician-Portuguese in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (13th century) as suffre. From Latin sulfur, sulphur, sulphure, from Proto-Indo-European *swelplos, from the root *swel- (“to burn, smoulder”). Compare Portuguese enxofre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɔfɾɪ/

Noun

xofre m (uncountable)

1. sulfur, sulphur
   • 1455, X. Ferro Couselo (ed.), A vida e a fala dos devanceiros. Escolma de documentos en galego dos séculos XIII ao XVI, page 315:

     Acharon en hun esqeiro hun pedaço de pedra xofre [...] et fogil et ysca et candea de çera et hun pente e mechas de xofre e hun cordón de sedas

     They found in a tinder container a piece of sulphur stone [...] and a tinderbox, and tinder, and a candle made of wax, and a comb, and sulfur wicks, and a silk cord

Related terms

• xofrar

References

• “suffre” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006-2012.
• “xofre” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
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• “xofre” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.