amigo

Forms

amigo m (plural amigos, feminine amiga, feminine plural amigas)^[1] As an adjective: feminine amiga, plural amigos, amigas; superlative amicíssimo or amiguíssimo.^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote amigo and amijgo;^[2] amyguo appears in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin amīcus (“friend; friendly”), written Old Galician-Portuguese amigo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin word was both a noun, “friend, confidant, protector, ally”, and an adjective, “loving, friendly, favourable”, and is formed from amō (“to love”).^[2][1] Wiktionary takes the ending to be -īcus, which may go back to an instrumental ending *-ih₁ followed by *-kos, as in pudīcus and mendīcus.^[1]

Compare Galician amigo, Spanish amigo, Catalan amic, French ami and Italian amico.^[1][4] In Latin, as in Old French, the noun also meant “lover”.^[4]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to *ama- (“to take, hold”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₃mh₃- (“to take hold of”), the meaning having passed from “take by the hand” to “regard as a friend”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's earliest quotation is from a 13th-century song of King Dinis: Ay flores, ay flores do verde pino, / se sabedes novas do meu amigo “Ah, flowers, flowers of the green pine, do you have news of my beloved?”^[3] In the cantigas d'amigo the word means the girl's sweetheart or lover, while in the cantigas d'amor the troubadours often address their companions as amigos.^[6] The adjective, “loving, showing friendship”, is also in the cantigas.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word covered both friendship and love: the Cancioneiro da Ajuda has it for a friend and for a lover, the Crónica Troiana has amiga for a mistress, and the genre of the cantiga d'amigo is named after the beloved.^[6][7] José Joaquim Nunes remarked in 1928 that in the sense “lover” the word had become pejorative.^[6] Barbosa (1611) still gives amiga as a synonym of manceba “concubine”, and Morais (1789) lists the senses “friend”, “illicit lover” and “honest suitor”.^[8][9] On Madeira the word was still mostly understood as “lover” in the 1930s, which the survey took for a survival from the Middle Ages.^[10]

Bluteau (1712) defines the friend as one joined to another by likeness of temper and mutual goodwill, more from virtue than from interest.^[11] Modern senses extend the word to admirers and supporters of a cause (amigo dos animais), to allied nations, and to people given to a habit, as in amigo do copo “a heavy drinker”.^[2][12] In Brazil it is a friendly form of address, even to strangers, a use shared with the River Plate.^[2][13] Hunsrik, the German dialect of southern Brazil, borrowed the word as Amigo.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, among them a song of King Dinis.^[2][14][3]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) uses the word.^[15]
• 1520 – a private letter writes amiguo.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders amigo by Latin amicus and amiculus.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists amiga cousa “a friendly thing” and amiga “concubine”.^[8]
• 1712 – Bluteau's long article on friendship.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais gives “friend” and “lover”.^[9]
• 1871 – first record of the learned adjective amical.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bound to someone by friendship; affectionate, friendly: um vizinho amigo.^[2][18][1]
2. In which there is friendship or goodwill: um sorriso amigo.^[2][18]
3. Favourable, propitious.^[2][19]
4. Of countries: on good terms, allied.^[2][18][1]
5. (military) Of one's own side; friendly.^[1]

Noun

1. A friend, a person bound to another by friendship: Tem amigos em todo o país.^[2][20][1]
2. An admirer or supporter of someone or something: os amigos do museu.^[2][12]
3. A protector or defender.^[2][19]
4. An allied people or nation.^[2][21][1]
5. (informal) A lover.^[2][12][22]
6. (informal) Someone given to a habit or vice.^[2]
7. (Brazil, informal) A form of address, also to a stranger.^[2][1]

Word family

• amigão
• amigaço
• amiguinho
• amigar

Related words

• amigável
• amizade
• amical
• inimigo
• Latin amīcus
• Galician amigo

Usage notes

Set phrases: amigo do peito “a bosom friend”, amigo da onça “a false friend, one who harms where he should help”, amigo de Peniche “a friend not to be trusted”, amigo do alheio “a thief”, and in Brazil amigo oculto or amigo secreto, a gift exchange among friends.^{[2][19][22][1]} In Portugal fiel amigo “faithful friend” is an informal name for salt cod.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. amigo
3. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. amigo
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ami
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ 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. amigo
7. ^ a b 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. amigo
8. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. amigo
9. ^ 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, 75
10. ^ 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. amigo
11. ^ 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. amigo
12. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. amigo
13. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. amigo
14. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. amigo
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. amigo
16. ^ 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. amigo
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. amigo
18. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. amigo
19. ^ 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. amigo
20. ^ 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. amigo
21. ^ 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. amigo
22. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 582