alegre

Forms

alegre m or f (plural alegres, comparable, comparative mais alegre, superlative o mais alegre or alegríssimo)^[1] Houaiss records the medieval variants allegre, elegre and legre in the 14th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *alicer (“lively”) (genitive *alecris), a Vulgar Latin form of Latin alacer (“lively, eager, cheerful”), written Old Galician-Portuguese alegre in the oldest texts.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Houaiss allows that the word may have come through the Occitan of the troubadours, and Nascentes and Aurélio take it from that source;^{[2][6][7][8][9]} Nunes argued for an Occitan origin because of the single /l/, and the REW takes the Spanish and Portuguese words from Occitan or Catalan.^{[2][6][7][8][9]} Machado finds Occitan influence unlikely, because the word appears as early as 1237 in the place name Monte Alegre.^[4]

The same Latin word is Galician alegre, Spanish alegre, Catalan alegre, Occitan alegre, Old French halaigre and Italian allegro.^[9][1] Corominas notes that the Catalan, Occitan and Old French forms have the vowel of a Vulgar Latin form with open /ɛ/.^[10] The source of the Latin adjective is uncertain: de Vaan considers a derivation from the root *h₂elh₂- (“to wander”) of ambulō (“to walk about”), though the meanings do not require it.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin text of 1237 has the place name Monte Alegre.^[4] In Portuguese the adjective appears in the 13th century: the Cantigas de Santa Maria have O cavaleiro da Virgen muit' alegre s'espediu “the Virgin's knight took his leave very happy”, and a cantiga of Johan Airas has ora chegou Don Beeito / muito alegre “now Don Beeito has arrived, very happy”.^[12][2][3] The Crónica Troiana uses it both for “happy” and for “sound, unharmed”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Pereira (1697) still glosses alegre as “lively”, the sense of the Latin word.^[13] Bluteau notes the horas alegres of the University, the hours after the bell had rung.^[14] Morais (1789) records cores alegres for bright colours such as red and yellow, and novas alegres for good news; in 1813 he adds searas alegres “fertile cornfields”.^[15][16] The sense “slightly drunk” is in Figueiredo (1899) and Silva Bastos (1912).^[17][18] Michaelis adds a sense “somewhat loose or risqué”, and one used of prostitution.^[19]

Timeline

• 1237 – the place name Monte Alegre in a Latin text.^[4]
• 13th century – alegre in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[12][2][3]
• 13th century – first record of alegria.^[20]
• 14th century – the variants allegre, elegre and legre.^[2]
• c. 1400 – alegre in the Compostela fragment of the Flos Sanctorum.^[21]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it as “lively”.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records cores alegres.^[15]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the sense “slightly drunk”.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. happy, cheerful; feeling or showing joy: uma criança alegre.^[2][7][1]
2. That causes joy, pleasant: uma notícia alegre.^[2][22]
3. (informal) Slightly drunk, tipsy.^[2][23][1]
4. Of colours: bright and vivid (vivo).^[2][24]
5. Somewhat loose or risqué.^[19]

Word family

• alegrar
• alegremente
• alegria

Related words

• alegro
• Latin alacer

Usage notes

In northern Brazil alegre is also a masculine noun for a tool used to make wooden spoons and to scrape the trunk of the maniçoba tree for its latex;^[2][7] Houaiss and Aurélio explain it as an altered legra.^[2][7]

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 j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. alegre
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. alegre
4. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. alegre
5. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. alegre
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. alegre
7. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. alegre
8. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 16
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 307
10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 141
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c 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. alegre
13. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. alegre
14. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. alegre
15. ^ 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, 54
16. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 87
17. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. alegre
18. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. alegre
19. ^ 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. alegre
20. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. alegria
21. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. alegre
22. ^ 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. alegre
23. ^ 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. alegre
24. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 432