bebedor

Forms

bebedor m (plural bebedores, feminine bebedora, feminine plural bebedoras)^[1] Houaiss records the medieval spellings bevedor (14th century), bebedor and beuedor (15th century).^[2] Cunha dates the form with -v- to the 14th century and bebedor to the 16th.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin bibitor (“drinker”), first written Old Galician-Portuguese bevedor in the 14th century.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Latin noun is formed on bibō (“to drink”) and meant “a heavy drinker”.^[7][1] Wiktionary also allows a Portuguese formation from beber with the suffix -dor, which is how Silva Bastos, Figueiredo, Michaelis and DELPo explain the word.^{[1][8][9][10][11]}

The same Latin noun lives on in Romanian băutor, Italian bevitore, Catalan bevedor and Spanish bebedor.^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's oldest record, from the 14th century and spelt bevedor, comes from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese and is given without its text.^[2] Machado's first quotation is a 16th-century proverb in Arrais, debaixo de huma ruim capa se acha hum bom bebedor “under a poor cloak you will find a good drinker”, where the word already means a person who drinks wine.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The early dictionaries render the word with Latin potor and potator “drinker, toper”: Cardoso in 1569, Barbosa in 1611 and Pereira in 1697;^{[14][15][16][17]} Folqman in 1755 translates hum grande bebedor as potator maximus.^{[14][15][16][17]} Morais (1789) and Vieira (1871) define it as one who drinks, Vieira adding “one who drinks a lot” and quoting the proverb of the cloak as a popular saying.^[18][19] The old Caldas Aulete specifies wine and other alcoholic drinks.^[20]

Today the word is also an adjective, and in Portugal a wine that is easy and pleasant to drink is called bebedor.^[5] In Guinea-Bissau a bebedor is a non-Muslim, a person whom no religious rule keeps from alcohol.^[2][5] In informal use it stands for bebedouro, a drinking fountain or trough, a use Houaiss does not recommend.^[2][20] In Ceará and Paraíba it is a well dug down to the water table, and in older Brazilian usage a place in the bush where animals go to drink.^[6][21][22]

Timeline

• 1300s – first record, spelt bevedor, in Cunha's medieval index.^[2]
• 1400s – the spellings bebedor and beuedor.^[2]
• 1513 – bebedor in the Livro dos Mártires.^[23]
• 1500s – Arrais quotes the proverb of the poor cloak and the good drinker.^[4]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary translates the word as Latin potor.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as one who drinks and cites the proverb.^[18]
• 1871 – Vieira adds the sense “one who drinks a lot”.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That drinks; fond of a particular drink: um rapaz muito bebedor de sumos.^[2][6]
2. Given to drinking alcohol to excess; drunken, ébrio.^[2][5][24]
3. (Portugal, popular) Of a wine: light, fresh and easy to drink.^[5]

Noun

1. A drinker, a person who drinks: Era um grande bebedor de chá.^[2][6][1]
2. A habitual drunkard.^[2][5][6]
3. (Guinea-Bissau) A non-Muslim, one who may drink alcohol without religious restriction.^[2][5]
4. (informal) A drinking fountain or water trough; bebedouro.^[2][20][1]
5. (Ceará, Paraíba) A well dug down to the water table; cacimba.^[6][21]
6. bebedor social: a person who drinks moderately, only on social occasions;^[2][10] bebedor de sangue: a cruel, bloodthirsty person.^[2][10]

Related words

• beber
• bebedouro
• bêbedo
• Latin bibitor
• Spanish bebedor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. bebedor
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. bebedor
4. ^ a b c Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. bebedor
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. bebedor
6. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. bebedor
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. bebedor
9. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. bebedor
10. ^ 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. bebedor
11. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. bebedor
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. bebedor
14. ^ a b c Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bebedor
15. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bebedor
16. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bebedor
17. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. bebedor
18. ^ 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
19. ^ a b 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, 746
20. ^ 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. bebedor
21. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. bebedor
22. ^ 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. bebedor
23. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. bebedor
24. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1322