órfão

Forms

órfão (feminine órfã, masculine plural órfãos, feminine plural órfãs)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote orfaos and orfááos in the 13th century, and orffãos, orfom, orfoo, horfõõm and orphãos in the 14th.^[2] Cunha also records the spellings orphão and orfano in the 13th century.^[3] The feminine was orfaa or orfãa in the medieval chronicles.^[4][5] Bluteau (1712–1728) still heads the word orfaõ.^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin orphanus (“orphan”), a word that Late Latin took from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “without parents, fatherless”).^[2][3][7][1] The Latin word is a word of the Church: Lewis and Short cite it in the Vulgate and in Ambrose.^[8][9] The vernacular forms with a nasal ending (Old Galician-Portuguese orfãos, Old Galician-Portuguese orfõos) stand beside learned spellings with ⟨ph⟩ and the full Latin ending, Old Galician-Portuguese orphão and Old Galician-Portuguese orfano.^[2][3]

The same Latin word is Galician orfo, Spanish huérfano, Catalan orfe, Italian orfano and Romanian orfan, and Old French had orfene, whose diminutive gave French orphelin.^[10][1][9] Corominas notes that the word is common to all the Romance languages, while the native Latin word for "orphaned", Latin orbus, survived only with other senses.^[11]

The Greek adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos (“orphan”), and is cognate with the Latin word just named and with Old Armenian որբ (orb, “orphan”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century from Cunha's slips of medieval Portuguese, and Cunha gives the 13th century for its first record.^[2][3] Long before that, Latin charters of Portugal and Galicia used the Latin word: pauperes orfanos “poor orphans” in 1057, mulier orfana “an orphaned woman” in 1225.^[4] In the Crónica Troiana many maidens are left orfaas “orphaned” and many ladies widows after a battle, and the Crónica Geral calls an archbishop's see orfaa of its shepherd, already in a transferred sense.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant a child who has lost one or both parents, and by extension anyone deprived of a protector.^[2][4] The 14th-century chronicles pair it with widows and the poor, as objects of charity.^[4] Bluteau (1712–1728) records the figurative use for a state that has lost its prince, quoting João de Barros on a city orfãa de seu Rey “orphaned of its king”.^[6] Morais (1789) defines the noun as one whose father or mother has died, usually said of children, and gives the adjective and figurative use with quotations.^[12]

Modern dictionaries add the senses “abandoned, helpless” and “lacking something” (órfão de afeto), and in law a minor who has lost a parent.^[2][13][14] Beekeepers call a colony that has lost its queen órfã.^[2] The old Caldas Aulete and Priberam record the threat ver os meninos órfãos a cavalo, “to see extraordinary things”, said of a punishment to come.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1057 – a Latin charter speaks of pauperes orfanos.^[4]
• 1200s – first record of the Portuguese word, spelt orfaos, orfááos and orphão.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the Crónica Troiana and the Crónica Geral have orfaa, orfãa and orfõos.^[4][5]
• 1510 – orfãos in the Vida de Santa Mónica.^[17]
• 1546 – horfãos in a private letter.^[18]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates Orfão as Latin pupillus and orphanus.^[19]
• 1611 – Barbosa notes that orphanus is a Greek noun and adds the Latin orbus.^[20]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the figurative use for a state without its prince.^[6]
• 1789 – Morais defines the noun and the figurative adjective.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having lost one or both parents: uma menina órfã de mãe.^[2][14][1]
2. (by extension) Having lost a protector or someone dear.^[2][13]
3. (beekeeping) Of a colony of bees: having lost its queen.^[2]
4. (figurative) Abandoned, helpless.^[2][14]
5. (figurative) Lacking or deprived of something: órfão de esperança.^[2][13]

Noun

1. An orphan, a person who has lost one or both parents.^[2][13][1]
2. (law) A minor who has lost one or both parents through death.^[2]

Related words

• orfandade
• orfanato
• Latin orphanus
• Galician orfo
• Spanish huérfano

Usage notes

The feminine is órfã and the plurals are órfãos and órfãs.^[14][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. órfão
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. órfão
4. ^ a b c d e f g Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. orfaa
5. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. orfãa
6. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. orfaõ
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. órfão
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. orphanus
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. orphelin
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6105
11. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 417
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 138
13. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. órfão
14. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. órfão
15. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. órfão
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. órfão
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. orfãos
18. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. órfão
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. orfão
20. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. orfão