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burro

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word burro

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1364 More words from the 14th century
Ultimate origin
Latin burricus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek πῦρ (pûr)
Ancient Greek πυρρός (purrhós)
Latin burrus
Latin burrīcus
Portuguese burrico
Portuguese burro
The word's journey
From the same root
Ancient Greek πυρά (purá) ← πῦρ
Latin burra ← burrus

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ˈbu.ʁu/, [ˈbu.hu][1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /ˈbu.ʁu/, [ˈbu.χu][1]
  • Portugal: /ˈbu.ʁu/[1]

Forms

burro m (plural burros, feminine burra, feminine plural burras)[1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Portuguese burrico, from Latin burricus (“small horse”), the view of Houaiss, Aurélio, Nascentes and Wiktionary, after the REW.[2][3][4][1][5] Machado, too, deduces it from borrico, which is recorded first, between 1188 and 1230, and because derivatives are built on a stem burric-, such as burricada and burriquete.[6] Cunha, the DLP and Michaelis instead derive it from burrus (“red, reddish brown”).[7][8][9] Houaiss thinks this less likely.[2] Diez rejected the link with the colour word, which Vossius had made.[4] Machado notes that a donkey is often called ruço (“grey-brown”) in Portuguese, and suggests that the Latin colour word may already have meant “donkey”.[6]

The Latin diminutive is attested from the 3rd–7th centuries, and Spanish has the same pair, borrico and burro.[10][11] Wiktionary derives the diminutive from the colour word, which is from Ancient Greek πυρρός (purrhós, “flame-coloured”).[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A medieval document of 1364, cited by Lorenzo, lists ssete bestas asnajs cjnco ffemeas e hum asno e hum burro “seven asses, five females, an ass and a donkey”.[13] Houaiss and Cunha date it to the 14th century.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Machado observes that asno was the commoner word earlier, and quotes the 16th-century Eufrosina: nam sejais burro de Vicente.[6] Vieira explains the proverb ser burro de Vicente as “to go from bad to worse” and records estar com o burro “to sulk” and the student's crib.[14] Vieira also records the figurative sense “stupid person”.[14]

Many tools and stands took the name of the beast of burden: a sawhorse, the prop that holds a cart level, a bench, a small auxiliary engine.[2][1] In Brazil it can mean a mule, and in the jogo do bicho the third group of numbers.[2][3] The Portuguese word passed into Sinhalese.[1]

Timeline

  • 1188–1230 – borrico in Latin charters.[6][13]
  • 1364 – hum burro in a list of animals.[13]
  • 16th century – burro de Vicente in the Eufrosina.[6][14]
  • 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin asellus.[15]
  • 17th century – first records of burrada and emburrar.[7]
  • 1712–1728 – Bluteau proposes a derivation from Late Latin buricus “horse”.[16]
  • 1813 – first record of burrico.[7]
  • 1881 – first record of burrice.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A donkey; jumento, asno.[2][3][1]
  2. (Brazil) A mule.[2][3]
  3. A wooden sawhorse or trestle.[2][17][1]
  4. A prop that holds the shaft of a cart level.[2][3]
  5. A word-for-word translation of a classical author used by students; a crib.[2][3][1]
  6. A simple card game, and the loser in it.[2][3]
  7. A small auxiliary engine; burrinho.[2][1]
  8. (nautical) A tackle on the end of the boom.[2][1]
  9. (Brazil) The third group in the jogo do bicho.[2][3]

Adjective

  1. stupid, dim; ignorant; stubborn.[2][8][1]

Word family

  • burrada
  • burrice
  • burrico
  • burrinho
  • burrego
  • burreco
  • burricada
  • burriquete
  • emburrar
  • emburrado
  • burrocracia

Usage notes

Common set phrases are burro de carga “a person who does the heaviest work”, pra burro “a lot” (Brazil) and dar com os burros n'água “to fail”.[18][8][1]

Houaiss records a separate word burro, a variety of yellow maize of the Alentejo, probably a shortened form of zaburro, first listed by Figueiredo in 1899.[2][19] Diogo de Couto calls burro a south-westerly storm.[14][6] Vieira and Houaiss place it on the coast of São Tomé, Machado's quotation in Ceylon, and Machado treats it as a separate word of unknown, perhaps Eastern origin.[14][2][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. burro
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. burro
  4. ^ 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. 82
  5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1413
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. burro
  7. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. burro
  8. ^ a b c 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. burro
  9. ^ 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. burro
  10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 634
  11. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. borrico
  12. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. burricus
  13. ^ 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. burro
  14. ^ a b c d e 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, 834
  15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. burro
  16. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. burro
  17. ^ 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. burro
  18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1580
  19. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. burro
Cite this entry

“Burro.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/burro. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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