coitelo

Galician

St. Bartholomew holding a coitelo ("knife") on a late medieval fresco, Melide, Galicia

Alternative forms

• cuitelo, cutelo, cutielo, cutilo

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese cuitelo, coitelo, from Latin cultellus. Cognate with Portuguese cutelo and Spanish cuchillo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [kojˈtelʊ]

Noun

coitelo m (plural coitelos)

1. knife

   En cas do ferreiro coitelo de pau (proverb)

   the shoemaker's children go barefoot

   (literally, “at the smith's house, wooden knife”)

   • 1448, X. Ferro Couselo, editor, A vida e a fala dos devanceiros, Vigo: Galaxia, page 295:

     Iten, Johán Cortido, vesiño da çidade d'Ourense, et sua ama diseron, por lo dito juramento que feito avyan, que omes de Aluaro de Taboa[da] que lle lleuaron e tomaron do seu lugar de Casa Noua sete mantas e hun alfamare e tres sabaas de cama et hun pano de cabeça et quatro toucas et hun sodario et viinte e duas maranas de fiado delgado et seys bincos de prata et huas doas de viinte pares de doas et hun leitón, por que lle dauan dosentos mrs, et seys sacos et dous coitellos de mesa et çen mrs vellos en diñeiros, et tres capilejos et dous vntos, et dous legóos nouos et hun espeto et hua fouçe et hun caldeiro de cobre et hun manto vermello et hua sabaa, e que todo lle tomaran e que a apancaran e que a encheran de couçes

     Item, Xoán Cortido, neighbor of the city of Ourense, and his housekeeper, told, under the oath they'd done, that men of Álvaro de Taboada took from them and took in their place of Casa Nova: seven blankets, a quilt, three bedsheets, a cloth for the head, and four shawls and a shroud and twenty two skeins of thin yarn and six silver earrings and twenty pairs of beads and a piglet, for which they would give two hundred maravedis, and six bags and two table knives and a hundred old maravedis in coins, and three coifs and two lards, and two new hoes and a roasting skewer and a sickle and a copper cauldron and a red robe and a sheet, and that all this they took and that they beat her up and filled her with kicks

2. billhook

   Synonym: podón

Derived terms

• acoitelar
• coitela
• coitelada
• coiteleiro

 

References

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “coitelo”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “coytel”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “coitelo”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “coitelo”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “coitelo”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN