English
cantiga
Cantiga comes from Portuguese cantiga ‘folk song’, and perhaps goes back to Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n- ‘to sing’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*keh₂n-1‘to sing’uncertain
- Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*kantlom1‘singing, song’uncertain
- Old Galician-Portuguesec. 1100–1500cantiga2‘song’
- Portuguesec. 1500–presentcantiga2‘folk song’
- Englishearliest quotation 2007cantiga2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Old Galician-Portuguese cantiga
- 2 Wiktionary, English cantiga
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2007, Allan Kozinn, Juilliard’s New Semester Starts With New Music: “The most immediately engaging work here was Roberto Sierra’s…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*keh₂n-Wiktionary, Old Galician-Portuguese cantiga‘to sing’uncertain
- Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*kantlomWiktionary, Old Galician-Portuguese cantiga‘singing, song’uncertain
- Old Galician-Portuguesec. 1100–1500cantigaWiktionary, English cantiga‘song’
- Portuguesec. 1500–presentcantigaWiktionary, English cantiga‘folk song’
- Englishearliest quotation 2007cantigaWiktionary, English cantiga. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2007, Allan Kozinn, Juilliard’s New Semester Starts With New Music: “The most immediately engaging work here was Roberto Sierra’s…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n- ‘to sing’
accent, incentive, chant, bazooka, cantor, shanty, chanson, incantation, recant, 52 more
Today it means
noun A medieval monophonic song, sometimes religious, characteristic of the Galician-Portuguese lyric.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “cantiga”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old Galician-Portuguese cantiga. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n- / cantiga