faísca

• feísca, fiasca

From Old Galician-Portuguese (first attested locally as appellative circa 1300, feysca; attested as nickname as Falisca since 1167 in local Medieval Latin).^[1] From Proto-Germanic *falwiskǭ (“spark, ash over burning ambers”),^[2] from Proto-Germanic *falwaz (“fallow”) from Proto-Indo-European *polʷos, or from Vulgar Latin *favillesca, from favilla (“embers”). Cognate with Portuguese faísca and Asturian falisca. Compare also Old High German falawisca (“hot ashes”), Old Norse fǫlski (“ash over burning ambers”), and French flammèche.

• IPA^(key): [faˈiskɐ]

faísca f (plural faíscas)

1. spark (detached from burning material)

   Synonyms: charamela, charamusca, chispa, moxena, muxica

   • c. 1300, R. Martínez López, editor, General Estoria. Versión gallega del siglo XIV, Oviedo: Publicacións de Archivum, page 209:

     et vio sayr ẽno ayre feyscas et moxenas da terra [asi] cõmo de forno que arde

     and he saw embers and sparks emerging from the land and going into the air, as from a burning oven

2. dandruff

   Synonym: caspa

3. pine needle

   Synonyms: arume, frouma

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

From Old Galician-Portuguese faisca, feisca (attested in Medieval Latin as falisca), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Proto-Germanic *falwiskǭ (“spark, ash over burning ambers”), from Proto-Germanic *falwaz (“fallow”) from Proto-Indo-European *polʷos, or from Vulgar Latin *favillesca, from favilla (“embers”). Cognate with Galician faísca and Asturian falisca. Compare also Middle French falivoche, Old High German valwische, Old Italian falavesca, Old Norse fǫlski, Old Spanish fuisca and Swedish falaska.

• Hyphenation: fa‧ís‧ca

faísca f (plural faíscas)

1. spark

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:faísca

2. (Trás-os-Montes) dandruff

   Synonym: caspa

3. (Trás-os-Montes) lightning

   Synonym: relâmpago

• faiscar

faísca

1. inflection of faiscar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative