asno

Forms

asno m (plural asnos)^[1] A variant asnho is recorded in 1269.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin asinus (“ass, donkey”), written Old Galician-Portuguese asno in the oldest texts.^[4][3][2][1] The unstressed vowel of the second syllable was lost.^[5] The same Latin word is Galician asno, Spanish asno, Catalan ase, French âne, Italian asino, Sardinian ainu, Aromanian asin and Romanian asin.^[6][7][1]

The Latin word is itself a loan: de Vaan notes that its intervocalic /s/, which was not rhotacised, points to a recent borrowing, and that most Indo-European words for the ass are loanwords.^[8] He rejects a common source *os(o)no- with Ancient Greek ὄνος (ónos), and suggests that Hieroglyphic Luwian tarkasna- and Sumerian anšu may contain the base of the Greek and Latin words.^[8] Wiktionary similarly thinks of a substrate language of Asia Minor.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin text of 1209 already writes uno asno “one ass”, with the Romance form inside the Latin.^[2] The first Galician-Portuguese records are a text of 1228, Do asno ou de asna iij dñ. “for an ass or a she-ass three deniers”, and a regulation of fairs of 1269 that has asnho.^[10][2] The sense in all of them is the animal, as a beast of burden and an object of trade.^[10][2]

Semantic evolution

The Miragres de Santiago use the word several times (enprestoche aqueste meu asno “I lend you this ass of mine”), and a cantiga of escarnho by Johan de Gaia mocks a knight who “was sold like an ass at the market” (come asno no mercado / se vendeu un cavaleiro).^[10] Morais (1789) records the figurative sense “dolt, very foolish person”, and Bluteau (1712) already describes the animal as lazy and dull-witted, but hard-working and patient.^[11][12] The old Caldas Aulete has ficar com cara de asno “to look like an ass”, to realise one has been cheated.^[13] Houaiss and Aurélio define asno by referring to jumento and burro.^[4][5] It is also the name of a fish, the cangulo-da-parede.^[4][14]

Timeline

• 1209 – uno asno in a Latin text.^[2]
• 1228 – Do asno ou de asna in a Galician text.^[10]
• 1269 – the variant asnho.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – asno in the Horto do Esposo.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin asinus.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais records the sense “stupid person”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A donkey, ass (Equus asinus); burro, jumento.^[4][5][1]
2. (figurative, derogatory) A stupid or ignorant person; a fool: Só um asno faria uma coisa dessas.^[4][5][1]
3. A fish, the cangulo-da-parede (Balistes forcipatus).^[4][14]

Adjective

1. Stupid, ignorant, foolish.^[17][18][19]

Word family

• asnal
• asneirão

Related words

• asinino
• asna
• asinário
• asinal
• burro
• jumento
• Latin asinus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. asno
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. asno
4. ^ 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. asno
5. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. asno
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 704
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. asinus
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. asinus
10. ^ a b c d 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. asno
11. ^ 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, 127
12. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. asno
13. ^ 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. asno
14. ^ a b 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. asno
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. asno
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. asno
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. asno
18. ^ 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. asno
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 993