antigo

Forms

antigo (feminine antiga, masculine plural antigos, feminine plural antigas)^[1] Medieval texts also write antigoo, antiigo and antiguo (14th century) and antijgoo (15th century).^[2][3] The feminine antigua is found beside antiga.^[4] A dialect form entigo is recorded in Portugal.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin antīquus (“former, old”), written Old Galician-Portuguese antigo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][6][1] Latin manuscripts also have a masculine antīcus beside the feminine in -qua, and the DCECH takes this inflection as the starting point of all the Romance forms.^[7] The DDGM's glossary of the Crónica Geral derives most Galician-Portuguese forms from the form in -cus, and only the rare antigoo perhaps from the form with -qu-.^[4] Nascentes and Cunha instead see the Latin feminine in the old antigua.^[8][3] Portuguese generalised the stem of the masculine, while Spanish carried that of the feminine into the masculine.^[7][9] The Latin /kʷ/ between vowels became /ɡ/, as in água.^[10]

The same word is Galician antigo, Spanish antiguo, Catalan antic, Occitan antic, Italian antico and Old French anti.^[9][7] French antique is a borrowing from the Latin word.^[11]

The Latin adjective is formed on ante (“before, in front”).^[12][13] Machado notes its local sense “that which is in front”, kept figuratively in the comparative and superlative.^[6] Wiktionary reconstructs it as Proto-Indo-European *h₂énti-h₃kʷ-o-s (“facing the front”), from the roots of the Latin preposition and of oculus (“eye”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 933 already has the Romance feminine plural in per arcas antiguas.^[6][2] In Galician-Portuguese the adjective appears in the 13th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria: en un mõesteir' antigo “in an old monastery”, o diabr' antigo “the old devil”, and Eva, a nossa madr' antiga “Eve, our ancient mother”.^[4] The Crónica Troiana has hun tenplo antigo “an ancient temple”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word already meant both “very old” and “of former times”: the Crónica Geral speaks of o prouerbio antigo and os foros antigos, the old laws.^[4] The Cantigas also have d' antigo “from of old”.^[4] Houaiss dates the noun use, “old things, antiques”, to the 13th century.^[2] Medieval Latin used antiquus for an old man or forebear, and antiquus hostis for the devil.^[14]

Morais in 1789 opposes it to “modern, recent, new” and records ao antigo “in the old style”.^[15] Vieira notes antigo de dias, the biblical name of God.^[10] The sense “former”, of someone who no longer holds a post (o antigo director), and “senior” in an institution, are standard in the modern dictionaries.^[2][16] Linguists use português antigo for the language before the middle of the 16th century.^[16]

Timeline

• 933 – a Latin charter writes per arcas antiguas.^[6]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use antigo and antiga.^[4][3]
• 13th century – first record of the noun antigo “old things”.^[2]
• 14th century – the spellings antigoo, antiigo and antiguo, and first record of antiguidade.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – antigo in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[17]
• 1755 – Folqman renders “our old friendship” with Latin inveterata amicitia.^[18]
• 1789 – Morais records ao antigo “in the old style”.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That has existed for a long time; old: uma igreja antiga.^[2][19][1]
2. That existed in the past; ancient: a Grécia antiga.^[2][19][1]
3. Kept up for a long time: uma tradição antiga.^[2][20]
4. former: who once held a post or office, or preceded its present holder.^[2][16][1]
5. Following a tradition; time-honoured (vetusto).^[2]
6. senior: having precedence in an institution because of length of service.^[2][10]
7. (linguistics) Archaic (arcaico): of Portuguese before the middle of the 16th century.^[16]

Noun

1. What is old: old objects, antiques, old customs.^[2][21]
2. (in the plural) The people of former times; ancestors.^[2][21]

Word family

• antiguidade
• antigamente

Related words

• antiquado
• antiquário
• Latin antīquus
• Galician antigo
• Spanish antiguo

Usage notes

Antigo Testamento is the Old Testament.^[21][1] The superlative is antiquíssimo or antiguíssimo.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. antigo
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. antigo
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. antigo
5. ^ 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. antigo
6. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. antigo
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 279
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. antigo
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 504
10. ^ 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, 452
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. antique
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. antīquus
13. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. antīquus
14. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. antiquus
15. ^ 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, 88
16. ^ a b c d 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. antigo
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. antigo
18. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. antigo
19. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. antigo
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. antigo
21. ^ 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. antigo