bordel

Forms

bordel m (plural bordéis)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French bordel (“hut; brothel”).^{[2][3][1][4][5]} Houaiss traces it to Old French bordel, recorded before 1105 for a hut, and for a brothel from about 1200.^[6] Nascentes and Caldas Aulete took it from Old Occitan bordel (“poor hut”) instead.^[7][8]

The French word is a diminutive of borde (“small house, hut”), from Frankish *borda (“house of planks”), the neuter plural of *bord (“plank”) taken as a collective.^[6][9][3] Wiktionary traces the Frankish word to Proto-Germanic *burdą (“board”).^[10] Diminutives of the same word are the Occitan one and Italian bordello, both recorded in the 13th century, and Vieira lists Spanish burdel and Catalan bordell beside them.^[6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha record the word in the 15th century in the old sense “hut”, and the sense “brothel” from the 16th century.^[6][2] Morais quotes the Cancioneiro of Resende for the brothel: Porque dentro no bordel, como fora delle cayo “for inside the brothel, as outside it, I fell”.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

Vieira explains the change of sense by the cabins outside the inhabited parts of towns in which prostitutes once lived, and Aurélio and Nascentes give the same account.^[11][5][7] Morais defines the word as mancebia and lupanar.^[13] By extension it came to mean any den of debauchery, and in Portugal also a place of disorder and confusion.^[6][4]

Timeline

• before 1105 – Old French bordel “hut”.^[6]
• 1450–1516 – bordel “hut” in Portuguese.^[6]
• 16th century – first record in the sense “brothel”.^[6][2]
• 1789 – Morais's dictionary, with a quotation from the Cancioneiro of Resende.^[12]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira explains the sense from cabins outside the towns.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A brothel; the same as prostíbulo.^[6][4][1]
2. (by extension) Any place of debauchery or obscenity.^[6][8]
3. (informal) A place of great disorder and confusion.^[4]
4. (obsolete) A hut.^[2][6]

Related words

• French bordel
• Italian bordello
• Spanish burdel

Usage notes

The plural is bordéis, with an open vowel, unlike bordeis, a form of the verb bordar.^[5][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. bordel
3. ^ a b Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. bordel
4. ^ 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. bordel
5. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. bordel
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. bordel
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 75
8. ^ 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. bordel
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. bordel
10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. bordo
11. ^ 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, 800
12. ^ 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, 190
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 292