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ajuda

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word ajuda

Confidence
Established
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1254 spelt aiuda More words from the 13th century
Ultimate origin
Latin iuvō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin iuvō
Italian giovare
Latin adiuvō
Latin adiūtō
Catalan ajudar
French aider
Italian aiutare
Portuguese ajudar
Portuguese ajuda
Romanian ajuta
Spanish ayudar
From the same root
Latin iūcundus ← iuvō
Latin adiūmentum ← adiuvō
Latin adiūtor ← adiuvō
Latin adiūtōrium ← adiuvō
Latin adiūtrīx ← adiuvō
French aide ← aider
Portuguese ajudante ← ajudar
Spanish ayuda ← ayudar
Spanish ayudante ← ayudar

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /aˈʒu.dɐ/[1]
  • Portugal: /ɐˈʒu.dɐ/, [ɐˈʒu.ðɐ][1]
  • Portugal, Southern: /ɐˈʒu.dɐ/[1]

Forms

ajuda f (plural ajudas)[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote ajuda, aiuda and ayuda; the 15th century also has juda.[2][3] André de Resende uses the learned spelling adjuda.[4]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Portuguese ajudar (“to help”), the noun for the verb's action.[2][4][5][6][1] The verb is inherited from Latin adiūtō (“to help, assist”),[7][8] a frequentative of adiuvō (“to help”), itself from ad- and iuvō (“to help”).[9][10][1]

The same noun is Spanish ayuda, Catalan ajuda, Occitan ajuda and Italian aiuto.[11][1] The French aide and its English borrowing aid belong here too.[12][1] The Galician spelling is axuda.[13] Figueiredo (1899) took the noun straight from the Latin feminine participle adjuta.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology cites a text of 1254 with pro aiuda et pro enparamento “for help and protection”.[3] In the 13th-century cantigas the word means help, succour: Martim Soares has sen en de uoss ajuda ouuer “without having your help in it”, and Afonso X dar-vos-ei en ajuda muito coteife vilão “I will give you many base soldiers as help”.[4][3] The Crónica Troiana has leuarey en uossa ajuda Condes et duques “I will bring counts and dukes to your aid”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 translates it with the Latin adiumentum.[15] Folqman (1755) lists ajuda de custo, money given towards an expense, and the medical sense “clyster, enema”.[16] Morais (1789) adds a person who helps in some work, a shepherd's boy, and a piece that reinforces something that is about to break, as the ajudas put to a mast.[17] Vieira records the legal phrase ajuda do braço secular, the help that the civil authority gave to the sentences of the church courts.[18]

A church or chapel that serves part of a large parish is also an ajuda.[2][5] The Aulete records a feudal due of the time of Afonso III under this name.[19] Brazil added the north-eastern senses “collective work for a neighbour” (the mutirão) and the lime put into boiling cane juice to clean it.[2][20] As a masculine noun it is the helper of a shepherd or a miller in rural Portugal.[21][22] Computing gave it the sense “help, help file”.[5][1]

Timeline

  • 1254 – pro aiuda et pro enparamento in a text cited in Lorenzo's chronology.[3]
  • 13th century – ajuda in the cantigas of Martim Soares and Afonso X.[4][3]
  • c. 1400 – ajuda in the Santiago fragment of the Flos Sanctorum (witness 1380–1425).[23]
  • 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary.[15]
  • 1755 – Folqman lists ajuda de custo and the sense “clyster”.[16]
  • 1789 – Morais adds “helper” and “reinforcing piece”.[17]

Meanings

Noun

  1. help, assistance; the act of helping: Agradeço a tua ajuda.[2][5][1]
  2. A favour done to someone.[2][5]
  3. Material, especially financial, aid;[6][24] ajuda de custo: an allowance for travel or other extra expenses.[6][24]
  4. A church or chapel that is a branch of a parish church.[2][5]
  5. (archaic) An enema, a clyster.[2][24]
  6. (computing) The help section of a program.[5][1]
  7. (Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte) Collective unpaid work for a neighbour, a mutirão.[2][25]
  8. (north-eastern Brazil) Lime or another alkaline substance added to sugar-cane juice to remove its acids.[2][20]
  9. (masculine, rural Portugal) A helper, such as the second shepherd of a flock or a miller's boy.[6][21]

Interjection

  1. Ajuda!: help!, a cry for urgent assistance.[1]

Usage notes

Ajuda is also a form of the verb ajudar (“he helps”, “help!” as an imperative).[26] As a place name, Ajuda (a parish of Lisbon, among others) is short for Nossa Senhora da Ajuda “Our Lady of Help”.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ajuda
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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. ajuda
  4. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. ajuda
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ajuda
  6. ^ 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. ajuda
  7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ajudar
  8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ajudar
  9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. adiūtō
  10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 428
  11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. adiutare
  12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. aider
  13. ^ 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. ajuda
  14. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. ajuda
  15. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ajuda
  16. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ajuda
  17. ^ 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, 47
  18. ^ 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, 255
  19. ^ 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. ajuda
  20. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. ajuda
  21. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. ajuda
  22. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. ajuda
  23. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ajuda
  24. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ajuda
  25. ^ 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. ajuda
  26. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. ajuda
Cite this entry

“Ajuda.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/ajuda. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·