The Compass Rose Names: Portuguese Data from Early Dictionaries and Textual Sources

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper explores the origins and evolution of cardinal point names in Portuguese. The authors draw on historical dictionaries and corpora to hypothesize that the shift from Latin to Germanic names was due to the changing paradigm of navigation across the Atlantic Ocean. The text discusses the history of the compass rose and the succession of borrowings in nautical terminology, as well as the importance of studying early dictionaries and corpora to understand lexical change over time. Ultimately, the authors conclude that the adoption of Germanic names was necessary due to the inadequacy of the old names for a new world.