briga

Forms

briga f (plural brigas)^[1] The oldest records write brigua;^[2][3][4] briga is also of the 15th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

Houaiss and Cunha take it as borrowed from French brigue (“quarrel”), which French borrowed from Italian briga.^[2][3] The Italian noun is recorded from before 1294, in Brunetto Latini, with the senses “trouble, difficult problem” and “controversy, quarrel”.^[5] The French word dates from 1314; the DHLF also has it from Italian and calls the Italian word of obscure origin.^[6] Houaiss notes that in Portuguese the verb brigar (1376) is recorded before the noun (1472), the reverse of Italian and French.^[2]

Wiktionary and Porto Editora derive the noun from the verb, and Wiktionary also allows a borrowing from Italian.^[1][7] The first edition of the Aurélio called it a deverbal noun, while the digital Aurélio derives it from Vulgar Latin *briga, from Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (brikan, “to break”).^[8][9] Machado too thinks of the Gothic verb, through Italian or French.^[4] The Gothic etymology goes back to Storm and Adolfo Coelho, and Meyer-Lübke derived it, with doubt, from Old Occitan brega.^[10]

For the Italian word, Nocentini gives a Celtic origin, from Gaulish *brīga (“strength, vigour”), which is supported by Old Irish bríg (“force, value”) and Welsh bri (“dignity”); Spanish brío would come from the masculine form of the same word.^[11] Houaiss and Cunha also trace the word back to Celtic.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado quotes a document of 1472: e dellas se poderiam recreçer briguas e comtemdas “whence fights and contentions might arise”.^[4] The Crónica de D. Pedro says that the king found the realm sem nẽhũa briga “without any strife”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The 16th- and 17th-century dictionaries render briga with Latin rixa “brawl” and contentio “dispute”, and Pereira adds iurgium “quarrel”.^[13][14][15] Morais (1789) defines a quarrel fought with words or with blows, and records pagar direitos sem briga “to pay dues without fuss”, that is, willingly.^[16] Vieira illustrates it with lines of Gil Vicente.^[17]

In the Bairrada region of Portugal briga is also a tube packed with gunpowder that boys light and throw at festivals.^[18][19][2] Brazilian Portuguese has briga de foice, a bitter fight fought to the end by any means, and the European dictionary of the Academia marks a fierce struggle as a Brazilian sense.^[2][9][20] Today the word covers physical fights, verbal rows, the breaking-off of a friendship or love affair, a clash of ideas and a contest for a prize or position.^[2]

Timeline

• 1376 – first record of the verb brigar.^[2]
• 1472 – briguas e comtemdas in a document.^[4][2]
• 15th century – brigua in the Cancioneiro Geral.^[12]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders briga with Latin rixa and contentio.^[13]
• 17th century – first record of brigão “quarrelsome person”.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais records pagar direitos sem briga.^[16]
• 1813 – first records of brigador and briguento.^[3]
• 1899 – Figueiredo derives the word from Medieval Latin briga and Gothic brikan.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fight between two or more opponents, hand to hand, with or without weapons; a brawl: Os vizinhos separaram a briga na rua.^[2][22][1]
2. A verbal quarrel, a row.^[2][19]
3. A falling-out; the breaking-off of a friendship or love relationship.^[2][9]
4. A disagreement over ideas; a debate, controversy.^[2]
5. A contest or competition for a favour, post or prize: a briga pelo primeiro lugar.^[2][19]
6. (Bairrada, Portugal) A firecracker, a tube packed with gunpowder thrown at festivals.^[2][20]

Word family

• brigar
• brigão
• briguento
• brigador
• brigalhada

Related words

• Italian briga
• French brigue

Usage notes

De briga means “at odds” (andar de briga com alguém) or “fond of fighting”, and the Brazilian comprar briga is to get into trouble needlessly.^[2][9] A galo de briga is a fighting cock.^[7]

Viterbo explains briga in ancient Hispanic town names (Flaviobriga, Juliobriga, Cetobriga) as a word for a town, and Bluteau tried to derive the noun “fight” from such gatherings.^[23][24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. briga
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. briga
4. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. briga
5. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1532
8. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 251
9. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. briga
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 79
11. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b 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. briga
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. briga
14. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. briga
15. ^ 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. briga
16. ^ 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, 198
17. ^ 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, 822
18. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. briga
19. ^ 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. briga
20. ^ a b 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. briga
21. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. briga
22. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. briga
23. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 208
24. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. briga