alhures

Forms

alhures (not comparable)^[1] The medieval language mostly wrote alhur or allur;^[2][3][4] alhures appears in the 15th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2] Houaiss, Machado, Cunha and Aurélio take it as probably borrowed from Old Occitan alhors (“elsewhere”).^[2][5][3][6] Machado follows Joseph Nunes here.^[2][5][3][6] Carolina Michaëlis compares alhurs and French ailleurs, from Latin aliorse beside aliorsum (“to another place, elsewhere”).^[4] The Occitan word goes back to the latter, from aliō (“to another place”) and vorsum (“towards”).^[7][8] Silva Bastos and Figueiredo derive the Portuguese word directly from the Latin one, and the DLP suggests a crossing of alibī with that adverb.^[9][10][11] Bluteau, Morais and Vieira took it from the French word.^[12][13][14]

Wiktionary compares Occitan alhors and Romanian aiurea.^[1] The REW explains the ending of the Gallo-Romance forms by the influence of locative comparatives such as superior and exterior; the DHLF doubts that the Latin adverb could give the French vowel and starts from *aliore in a phrase meaning “in another place”.^[7][15]

Machado considers the medieval Old Galician-Portuguese alhur a back-formation from the longer form.^[5] Michaëlis, who found no old example of the longer form, holds that the etymology makes it certain, and rejects the identification of the short form with algur.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's first record is a document of 1274: nõ aportem alhur senõ em Setuual “let them not put in elsewhere but at Setúbal”.^[5] The cantigas d'amigo use alhur often, as in a song of King Dinis: ir-m' alhur morar “to go and live elsewhere”.^[16][4]

Semantic evolution

The word means “elsewhere” throughout its history.^[2][4] Morais (1813) quotes the Ordenações Afonsinas for vogado d'alhures, a lawyer from other lands.^[17] By the 16th century it was felt to be old: Duarte Nunes de Leão lists it among antiquated words, and Bluteau calls alhur a term of the old Portuguese.^[5][12] The dictionaries of the 19th century and Silva Bastos mark it as old.^[14][9] It has been revived as a literary word: Aurélio quotes Machado de Assis.^[6]

Timeline

• 1274 – alhur in a document.^[5]
• 1294 – alhus in a document of Vairão, which Machado reads as an error or as a form of alhures.^[5]
• 1300s – alhur in a testament quoted by Viterbo.^[18]
• 1450 – the Livro das tres vertudes (witness after 1450) has both alhur and alhures.^[19][20]
• 1789 – Morais enters alhur, plural alhures, as antiquated.^[13]

Meanings

Adverb

1. elsewhere; in or to another place: Procurei a chave em casa, mas ela estava alhures.^[2][21][1]
2. Somewhere, in some place; algures.^[21][22]

Related words

• algures
• nenhures
• Latin aliorsum
• French ailleurs

Usage notes

Aurélio compares alhures with algures “somewhere” and nenhures “nowhere”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. alhures
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. alhur
4. ^ 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. alhur
5. ^ a b c d e f g Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. alhures
6. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. alhures
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 343
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. alhures
10. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. alhures
11. ^ 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. alhures
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. alhur
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, 59
14. ^ 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, 305
15. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ailleurs
16. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. alhur
17. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 94
18. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 93
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. alhures
20. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. alhur
21. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. alhures
22. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 464