avô

Forms

avô m (plural avôs, feminine avó, feminine plural avós)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote avoo and auoo, and in the 14th and 15th centuries also abõo, aboo and auuo.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *aviolus (“grandfather”), written Old Galician-Portuguese avoo in the oldest texts.^[2][4][5][1] Houaiss and Cunha explain the Vulgar Latin masculine as made from the feminine aviola, a diminutive of avia (“grandmother”).^[2][4] Wiktionary and Priberam derive the diminutive directly from Latin avus (“grandfather”).^[1][6] Machado traces it through the form that Latin charters of 1024 and 1132 write auolo, then the 13th-century spelling with a double vowel and the modern form in the 16th century: the loss of /l/ between vowels left two vowels in contact, which then merged.^[5][7]

The same Vulgar Latin word is Galician avó, Spanish abuelo, Asturian güelu, Occitan aujòl and French aïeul.^[8][1] The Meyer-Lübke dictionary notes that the Spanish and Portuguese forms, unlike the others, have lost the /i/ of the Latin word.^[8]

The Latin word goes back to *awo- and to *h₂éwh₂os, a word for the grandfather on the mother's side, also continued in Old Irish and in the Latin avunculus (“maternal uncle”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters of 1024 and 1132 already have the Romance form auolo.^[5][2] In Galician-Portuguese the word appears in the 13th century: the Notícia de torto speaks of twelve farms given as dowry by a grandmother (sua auóó), and the Cantigas de Santa Maria have seu avoo “his grandfather” and the plural avoos in the sense “forefathers”.^[5][3] The meaning was already “father of one's father or mother”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Cunha notes that the plural meant “ancestors” in the medieval language as it does today, and could also name the grandfather and grandmother together.^[4] A charter of Noia of 1376 speaks of property de meus auoos, inherited from the forefathers.^[3] Bluteau in 1712 explains the word with Latin avus and lists the terms for great-grandparents and earlier ancestors.^[10] Feijó in 1734 distinguishes the singular avô with a closed vowel from the plural avós with an open one.^[11]

The old Caldas Aulete records avô as a respectful title for an old man, and the DLP still labels this use popular and mostly rural.^[12][13] Avô torto, literally “crooked grandfather”, is the father of a stepfather or stepmother.^[2][13] The word passed into Mirandese abó, Nheengatu abú and Macanese avô-cong.^[1]

Timeline

• 1024 – a Latin charter writes auolo.^[5][2]
• 13th century – auóó in the Notícia de torto, and avoo and avoos in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[5][3]
• 1339 – meu auoo in a royal document.^[5]
• 1376 – meus auoos “my forefathers” in a charter of Noia;^[3] aboo follows there in 1487.^[3]
• 16th century – Gil Vicente's Auto da Feira writes auo.^[5]
• 1712 – Bluteau's dictionary heads the word avô.^[10]
• 1734 – Feijó contrasts avô with the plural avós.^[11]
• 1899 – Figueiredo's dictionary records the reduplicated vô-vô, today vovô.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. grandfather, the father of one's father or mother.^[2][15][1]
2. (in the plural) The two grandfathers together; as avós, the grandfather and grandmother.^[2][12]
3. (in the plural) Ancestors, forebears in general.^[2][13]
4. (popular) A respectful form of address for an old man.^[13][16]
5. (Brazil) Grandpa, as an affectionate name (vovô).^[15]

Word family

• bisavô
• trisavô
• vovô
• avoengo

Related words

• avó
• Latin avus
• Spanish abuelo

Usage notes

The plural is avós when it means the grandfather and grandmother together, and avôs when it means only the two grandfathers.^[12][15] Aurélio notes that avôs is now rarely used.^[12][15] The feminine is avó, with an open vowel.^[1][11] The phrase mais velho que o meu avô “older than my grandfather” means very old, or long known to everyone.^[2][15]

Castro's vocabulary of the Mina-Jeje speech of 18th-century Ouro Preto records a separate word avô “clothing, cloth”, from a Fon word for cloth.^[17]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. avô
3. ^ 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. avoo
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. avó
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. avô
6. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. avô
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. avô
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 830
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. avô
11. ^ a b c Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. avô
12. ^ 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. avô
13. ^ a b c d 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. avô
14. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vovô
15. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. avô
16. ^ 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. avô
17. ^ Castro, Yeda Pessoa de (2002), A língua mina-jeje no Brasil: um falar africano em Ouro Preto do século XVIII, Belo Horizonte: Fundação João Pinheiro, p. 73