anão

Forms

anão m (plural anãos or anões, feminine anã, feminine plural anãs)^[1] The old form was naão, recorded in the 14th and 15th centuries.^[2][3] The plural is anões or anãos, and Michaelis also gives anães; the feminine is anã.^[1][4] Machado notes the Spanish-influenced forms anano and enão in 16th-century texts.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nānus (“dwarf”), with a prothetic ⟨a-⟩, first written Old Galician-Portuguese naão.^[3][2][1] Nascentes and the first Aurélio call the ⟨a-⟩ a late addition.^[6][7] Vieira (1871) explained it as a metathesis of the vowel.^[8]

The same Latin word is Italian nano, French nain, Catalan nan and Spanish enano, and in Galician it is anano.^[9][10] Corominas explains the Spanish form as an obscure alteration of the old nano, perhaps under the influence of another adjective.^[11]

The Latin noun is from Ancient Greek νᾶνος (nânos, “dwarf”), also written νάννος (nánnos).^[12][13][1] It first appears in Varro, for a squat water vessel, and later displaced pūmiliō as the word for a dwarf.^[12][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha dates naão to the 14th century and Houaiss gives the 14th century for the word, from Cunha's medieval index.^[2][3] The oldest quotation Machado prints is of the 16th century, from João de Lucena's life of Francis Xavier: laranjeiras anaas “dwarf orange trees”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) translate it with Latin pumilio, and Barbosa also has the adjective anaã, Latin nanus.^[15][16] Morais (1789) defines the man who has not reached full size, and the adjective “smaller than usual”, quoting Lucena's dwarf orange tree; his 1813 edition adds the figurative anões na virtude “dwarfs in virtue”.^[17][18]

Modern dictionaries add the dwarf of folklore and fairy tales, the figurative sense “a person of little worth or talent” as the opposite of a giant, and the adjective for small breeds and varieties, as in coqueiro anão.^[19][3] Astronomy has estrela anã and planeta anão.^[1]

Timeline

• 14th century – naão.^[2][3]
• 16th century – laranjeiras anaas in João de Lucena.^[5]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary has Anão, Latin pumilio.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives the feminine anaã.^[16]
• 1813 – Morais records the figurative anões na virtude.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dwarf: a person of much less than normal height, especially one with nanismo;^[3][19][1] (sometimes offensive) a very short person.^[3][19][1]
2. A dwarf of folklore, legend and fairy tales.^[19][1]
3. (figurative, derogatory) A person of little intelligence, culture or worth.^[3][19]

Adjective

1. Of very small stature;^[3][4] (of animals and plants) of a small breed or variety: coqueiro anão.^[3][4]
2. Stunted, puny.^[3][20]
3. (figurative) Insignificant, of no value.^[21][22]

Word family

• anã-vermelha
• baleia-anã
• planeta anão

Related words

• nanico
• nanismo
• Latin nānus
• Spanish enano

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. anão
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. anão
4. ^ 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. anão
5. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. anão
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. anão
7. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 116
8. ^ 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, 401
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. nanus
10. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. anano
11. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 588
12. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. nānus
13. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. nānus
14. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. nain
15. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. anão
16. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. anão
17. ^ 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, 80
18. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 129
19. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. anão
20. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 85
21. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. anão
22. ^ 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. anão