amante

Forms

amante m or f (plural amantes)^[1] Houaiss records amãte in the 14th century and amante and amamte in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin amāns (“loving”), the present participle of amō (“to love”), recorded from the 14th century.^[2][3][1] Nascentes counts it among the learned words.^[4]

The same Latin participle is Galician amante, Spanish amante, Italian amante, Catalan amant and French amant; in French the learned word stands beside aimant, the inherited participle of the verb.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs the Latin verb as *amā- (“to take, hold”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃mh₃- (“to take hold of”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 14th century from Cunha's medieval index, in the spelling amãte.^[2] Machado's earliest quotation is from the Lusíadas (1572): he grande dos amantes a cegueira “great is the blindness of lovers”.^[6] Both adjective and noun, it meant “one who loves”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Pereira (1697) renders it with the Latin participle, and Bluteau notes that it is taken in a good and a bad sense, as amigo and namorado.^[7][8] Folqman (1755) separates the friend from the sweetheart and translates Terence's amantium irae amoris redintegratio est as os piques dos amantes são novos incentivos do amor “lovers' quarrels are fresh spurs to love”.^[9] Morais (1789) defines the noun as a person who loves, man or woman.^[10]

Caldas Aulete observed that in modern use the word is nearly always taken in the bad sense, for a person in an illicit relationship, and that is the first sense in today's dictionaries.^[11][2] The sense “fond of, keen on” lives on beside it, and in northern Portugal one says of a wine that goes down well that it is amante.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, spelt amãte.^[2]
• 15th century – the spellings amante and amamte.^[2]
• 1572 – he grande dos amantes a cegueira in the Lusíadas.^[6]
• 1697 – Pereira renders it with the Latin amans.^[7]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau notes that it is used in a good and a bad sense.^[8]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as a person who loves, a sweetheart.^[10]
• 1930 – vinho amante for a wine that goes down well, recorded at Lanhelas in the Minho.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. loving, who loves; in love.^[2][13][14]
2. Fond of something, keen on it: Sou muito amante de jazz.^[2][13]

Noun

1. A lover, a person who loves another; a sweetheart.^[2][3][1]
2. A person who has a sexual relationship with someone outside marriage; a mistress or the other man.^[2][11][1]
3. A lover of something, an enthusiast: os amantes da ópera.^[2][3]

Related words

• amar
• amor
• amador
• amásio
• Latin amāns
• Galician amante

Usage notes

A separate nautical noun amante, a heavy rope for raising and lowering the topmasts and other spars, is recorded from Bluteau's dictionary.^[2][6] Houaiss, Machado and the DLP derive it from Ancient Greek ἱμάς (himás, “strap, rope”), through Latin;^[6] Figueiredo had guessed Latin amentum.^{[2][6][3][15]} Corominas dates the Spanish nautical word to 1538 and the Catalan to 1331.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. amante
3. ^ 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. amante
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. amante
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. amō
6. ^ a b c d e f Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. amante
7. ^ 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. amante
8. ^ 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. amante
9. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. amante
10. ^ 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, 71
11. ^ a b 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. amante
12. ^ 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. amante
13. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. amante
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. amante
15. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 71
16. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 231