belo

Forms

belo (feminine bela, masculine plural belos, feminine plural belas, comparable, comparative mais belo, superlative o mais belo or belíssimo)^[1] Before a noun the medieval language used the short form bel; the spelling bello is recorded from the 16th century to the reform of 1911.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin bellus (“pretty, charming”), first recorded as the proclitic Old Galician-Portuguese bel.^[4][2][5][1] The Reichenau glosses of the 8th or 9th century already explain pulchra (“beautiful”) by the feminine of the adjective.^[5]

The same Latin word is Galician belo, Spanish bello, Catalan bell, Occitan bel, French beau and Italian bello.^[6][7][1] Meyer-Lübke took the Spanish and Portuguese words for borrowings from Italian, and Corominas holds that the Spanish word came through Old Occitan, since it is absent from the oldest Castilian texts.^[6][8] The Portuguese dictionaries derive the Portuguese adjective directly from the Latin adjective.^[4][2][5]

The Latin adjective is a diminutive of the root of bonus (“good”), from Old Latin duenos: it continues *duenelos.^[1][9] Houaiss accordingly calls it a cognate of bom.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado quotes a cantiga of King Dinis of the 13th century: Selad o bel caualo “saddle the fine horse”.^[5] The Cancioneiro da Ajuda has the proclitic form in tan bel presente “so fine a gift”, which Carolina Michaëlis compares with bon and gran.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Beside “beautiful”, Cunha records the medieval and modern sense “good, generous”.^[2] Modern dictionaries add the senses “pleasant, serene” of weather and places, “considerable” of a quantity (uma bela soma), “advantageous” and “honourable”;^[10][11] um belo dia means “one day, at some time”.^[10][11] As a noun, o belo is the beautiful as an aesthetic ideal, and belo! is an interjection of approval, often ironic.^[11][12] The short form bel survived into the 19th century in formal and archaic style.^[13]

Timeline

• 13th century – bel in the cantigas.^[2][3]
• 16th century – the spelling bello.^[2]
• 1871 – Vieira lists bel, the short form of belo.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. beautiful, with harmonious forms and proportions: uma bela estátua.^[4][10][1]
2. Pleasing to the senses; pleasant, serene: uma bela tarde.^[4][14]
3. Noble, sublime; good, generous.^[10][2]
4. Excellent, good of its kind: um belo jogador.^[14][11]
5. Considerable in number, size or amount: uma bela quantia.^[10][11]
6. Advantageous, profitable; honourable.^[10]
7. um belo dia: one day, at an unspecified time.^[11]

Noun

1. o belo: beauty as an ideal; what arouses aesthetic emotion.^[11][12]

Interjection

1. belo!: expresses approval, sometimes ironically.^[11][15]

Word family

• beldade
• beleza
• embelecer
• embelezador
• embelezamento
• embelezar

Related words

• bom
• Latin bellus
• Galician belo
• Spanish bello

Usage notes

O belo sexo “the fair sex” is a set phrase for women.^[14][12] The combining forms belo- “war” and belo- “dart”, from Greek, are unrelated.^[15][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. belo
3. ^ a b c 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. bel
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. belo
5. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. belo
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. bellus
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. bellus
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 562
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. bellus
10. ^ a b c d e f Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. belo
11. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. belo
12. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. belo
13. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. bel
14. ^ 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. belo
15. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1337
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. belo