agudo

Forms

agudo (feminine aguda, masculine plural agudos, feminine plural agudas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin acūtus (“pointed, sharp”), written Old Galician-Portuguese agudo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Vieira explains the two consonants: the Latin /k/ and /t/ between vowels became the voiced /ɡ/ and /d/, as in figo and medo.^[5]

The same Latin word gave Galician agudo, Spanish agudo, Catalan agut, Occitan agut, French aigu and Italian acuto.^[6][7][8]

The Latin adjective is the past participle of acuō (“to sharpen”), and belongs with acus (“needle”) and acūmen (“point”) to a stem *aku-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ-u- (“pointed”).^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters already use the Romance word in place names: in monte agudo in 1059 and subtus mons aguto in 1083.^[11][4][2] In the Galician-Portuguese texts of the 13th century the adjective means “pointed, sharp”: the Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of the devil's dent'agudo “sharp tooth” and of a fever that seized a woman, tal fever aguda, and Alfonso X mocks knights who keep their swords agudas e amoadas “sharp and whetted”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The figurative senses are old: the cantigas already call loud cries agudos “shrill”, and Afonso Lopez de Baian's caval' agudo is a lean, bony horse.^[11] Morais (1789) lists “sharp-witted, perceptive”, vista aguda “keen sight”, a sound that is “strong and fine”, doença aguda “a disease that kills or is cured in a short time”, the acute accent, and ventos agudos, cold strong winds.^[13] Vieira quotes Camões for a aguda vista and adds the musical sense “high-pitched”.^[5] The old Caldas Aulete has ângulo agudo, dito agudo “a witty saying” and the sense “acid, sour”.^[14] Grammar uses it for words stressed on the last syllable and for the acute accent; prosody for a line ending in a stressed syllable.^[15][16] Aurélio marks “angry, exasperated” as obsolete.^[17]

Timeline

• 1059 – in monte agudo in a Latin charter.^[11]
• 1083 – mons aguto in a Latin charter.^[4][2]
• 13th century – the adjective in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and in a cantiga d'escarnho of Alfonso X.^[11][3]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) uses the word.^[18]
• 15th century – first record of the derivative agudeza.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it with Latin acutus and argutus.^[19]
• 1789 – Morais lists the senses of wit, sight, sound, disease, accent and wind.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Ending in a fine point; pointed: um prego agudo.^[2][17][1]
2. Having a keen edge; sharp.^[2][1]
3. (figurative) Quick to understand; shrewd, perceptive, subtle.^[2][17]
4. (figurative) Of the senses, keen and precise: vista aguda.^[2][17]
5. (figurative) Of the wind, biting and cold.^[2]
6. Intense, violent: a sharp pain, a strong passion.^[17]
7. (figurative) Witty, sarcastic, biting.^[2][17]
8. (medicine) Of a disease, developing quickly and severely; acute.^[15][16]
9. (geometry) Of an angle, less than 90 degrees.^[15][1]
10. (grammar) Stressed on the last syllable, that is oxítono; also of the acute accent (´).^[15][16]
11. (music) Of a sound, high-pitched.^[20][1]

Noun

1. (music) A high note.^[15][20]

Word family

• agudeza
• agudez
• acento agudo

Related words

• aguça
• aguçado
• aguçar
• acutângulo
• Latin acus
• Spanish agudo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. agudo
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. agudo
4. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. agudo
5. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 1, 245
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 135
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. acutus
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 13
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. acuo
11. ^ a b c d e 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. agudo
12. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. agudo
13. ^ 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. 1, 45
14. ^ 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. agudo
15. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. agudo
16. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 365
17. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. agudo
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. agudo
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. agudo
20. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. agudo