alheio

Forms

alheio (feminine alheia, masculine plural alheios, feminine plural alheias)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote aleno, aleo, alleo, alheo and alhẽo;^[2][3] alheio is recorded from the 14th century.^[2][3] Writers of the 16th century still spelt it alheo and alhea.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin aliēnus (“belonging to someone else; foreign”), written Old Galician-Portuguese aleno, Old Galician-Portuguese aleo and Old Galician-Portuguese alhẽo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][5][1] Nascentes calls it a semi-learned outcome of the Latin word.^[6] Vieira explains the sound changes: Latin /li/ before a vowel became the palatal ⟨lh⟩, as in filho and conselho, and the /n/ between vowels was lost, as in coroa.^[7]

The same Latin word is Galician alleo, Spanish ajeno and Asturian ayenu.^[8][1] Corominas notes that the Latin word left popular descendants only in Portuguese, Spanish and Sardinian.^[9]

The Latin adjective is formed from alius (“other”), from *aljo-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-io- (“another”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record, spelt aleno, to 1255, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] Machado quotes a document of 1262 from Portel: E quem caualo aleno caualgar por .j. dia peite .j. carneiro “and whoever rides another man's horse for one day shall pay one sheep”, with the word in its first sense, “belonging to someone else”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From “belonging to another” the word passed to “foreign, of another land” and “having nothing to do with the matter”, and then to a person “far from” or “indifferent to” something, all listed by Morais in 1789 with alheio de si “beside oneself”.^[11][2] Vieira (1871) also gives the senses “ignorant of”, “absorbed” and “enraptured”, and Michaelis records “mad”.^[7][12] As a masculine noun, o alheio is what belongs to others.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1255 – first record, spelt aleno.^[2]
• 1262 – caualo aleno “another man's horse” in a document of Portel.^[5]
• 13th century – the spellings aleo, alleo, alheo and alhẽo.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the modern spelling alheio appears.^[2]
• 1504 – alhea in a private letter.^[4]
• 1789 – Morais lists alheio de si “beside oneself” and estar alheio “to be ignorant” of a subject.^[11]
• 1871 – Vieira explains the change of Latin -li- to ⟨lh⟩ and the loss of -n-.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Belonging to someone else; not one's own: Não mexas nas coisas alheias.^[2][15][1]
2. foreign, from another country or place; strange.^[2][13][1]
3. Having nothing to do with the matter in hand; irrelevant, out of place.^[2][15]
4. Keeping apart from something; indifferent to it, taking no part: Ficou alheio à discussão.^[2][13][1]
5. Lacking something; free or exempt from it.^[2][12]
6. unaware or ignorant of something.^[13][1]
7. absent-minded, absorbed in thought.^[13][14][1]

Noun

1. (masculine) What belongs to others; other people's property.^[13][14][12]

Word family

• alhear
• alheamento
• alheiamente

Related words

• alienar
• Latin aliēnus
• Galician alleo
• Spanish ajeno

Usage notes

The expression vergonha alheia is the embarrassment felt on someone else's behalf.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. alheio
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. alheio
4. ^ a b 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. alheio
5. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. alheio
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. alheio
7. ^ a b c 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, 304
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. alienus
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 95
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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, 59
12. ^ a b c 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. alheio
13. ^ a b c d e f 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. alheio
14. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 463
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. alheio