armário

Forms

armário m (plural armários)^[1] The older form was almário (14th century almaryo, 15th century almario), and armario is first recorded in 1556.^[2][3] In 1576 Duarte Nunes de Leão counted almario among the faulty words of the common people, to be corrected to armario, but almarios still appears in an inventory of 1706, and Vieira (1871) calls almario old and still popular.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin armārium (“cupboard, chest”).^[2][3][1] Nascentes and Wiktionary call it a learned word, and Machado explains the present form, recorded from 1556, as a learned restoration of the older Old Galician-Portuguese almario.^[5][1][3]

The Latin noun is formed from arma (“weapons, tools”) with the suffix -ārium.^[6][1] The DHLF notes that the Latin word for weapons also meant “implements”, and that the derived noun, though it could mean an armoury, is mostly found for a cupboard and then a bookcase.^[7] De Vaan traces it to Proto-Indo-European *h₂(e)r-mo- (“fitting”).^[8]

The same Latin word gave Spanish armario, Catalan armari, Occitan armari, French armoire and Italian armadio.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado quotes a 14th-century text in which a man is told that certain books lay with many others ennos almaryos da egreya “in the cupboards of the church”.^[3] The form armario first appears in the synodal constitutions of the diocese of Viseu of 1556, which keep the chapter's documents nos armarios do cartorio “in the cupboards of the archive”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1813) describes the armário first as a recess in the wall with shelves and a door, for crockery, table things and some food, and then as a movable piece of wooden furniture for clothes, linen or deeds.^[10] Vieira (1871) and Caldas Aulete give both the free-standing cupboard and the wall recess.^[4][11]

Recent informal senses are “a very big, strong man”, labelled Brazilian by Houaiss, and the phrase sair do armário “to come out of the closet”, to declare one's homosexuality.^[2][12][11]

Its Indo-Portuguese form almar passed on to Hindi अलमारी (almārī), which gave the English word almirah.^[1]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, almaryo.^[2][3]
• 1431 – the variant armeiro.^[3]
• 1556 – armarios in the synodal constitutions of Viseu.^[3]
• 1576 – Duarte Nunes de Leão condemns almario as a vulgar error for armario.^[3]
• 1706 – almarios is still written in an inventory.^[3]
• 1813 – Morais describes wall cupboards and movable ones.^[10]
• 1871 – Vieira calls almario the old and popular form.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cupboard, wardrobe or cabinet: a piece of furniture of wood, metal or other material, or a recess in a wall, with shelves or drawers and usually doors, for clothes, crockery, books and other things.^[2][13][1]
2. A locker.^[1]
3. (informal) A very tall, strong man.^[2][12][14]

Word family

• armarinho

Related words

• arma
• armeiro
• Latin armārium
• Spanish armario
• French armoire

Usage notes

Armário embutido is a built-in cupboard, set in a recess of the walls.^[13] Sair do armário “to come out of the closet” is informal in both Brazil and Portugal.^[11][12]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. armário
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. armário
4. ^ 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, 557
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. armário
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. armārium
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. armoire
8. ^ 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. arma
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 652
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 181
11. ^ a b c 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. armário
12. ^ a b c 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. armário
13. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. armário
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. armário