busto

Forms

busto m (plural bustos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian busto (“upper body; bust”), from Latin bustum (“place where the dead were burned and buried; tomb”).^[2][3][4][5] Houaiss derives it from the Latin word but traces the senses of sculpture to the Italian one.^[6] Machado notes that the Italian word took the sculptural sense in the 16th century.^[3]

In Italian the word means the upper part of the human trunk from the early 14th century, a bust in sculpture from about 1635.^[7] Wiktionary explains the shift from “tomb” to “bust” through the sense “funeral statue”.^[1] Nocentini rejects the Latin noun for its meaning and derives the Italian word from Vulgar Latin *būstum, from Gaulish *bustis (“stem, trunk”).^[8] Earlier proposals, such as Latin pyxis (“box”) and German Brust (“breast”), are reported and rejected by Nascentes.^[9] Spanish has the same word, busto, and French borrowed buste from Italian.^[10][8]

The Latin noun arose from compounds of ūrō (“to burn”): ambūrō was analysed as am- and *būrō, giving a participle ambustus.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the sculptural sense to the 18th century.^[6][2] Machado quotes Filinto Elísio: Pondo no Templo do immortal Renome, / De gloria ornado, o teu prezado busto “setting your cherished bust, adorned with glory, in the Temple of immortal Fame”.^[3][13]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) defines it as a sculpture of a man from the waist up, and in 1813 from the chest to the head.^[14][15] The sense “upper part of the human body” is recorded from 1836, and “a woman's breasts” from the 20th century.^[6][2] Vieira (1871–1874) also gives the Roman sense, the place where the dead were burned and buried.^[13] In Brazilian regional speech it is a word for the breast.^[16]

Timeline

• 18th century – first records of the sculptural sense, in Filinto Elísio's verse.^[6][2][3]
• 1789 – Morais lists it as a term of sculpture.^[14]
• 1836 – first record of the sense “upper body”.^[6][2]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira gives the Roman burial place as an old sense.^[13]
• 20th century – the sense “a woman's breasts”.^[6][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaeology) Among the Romans, the place where the dead were burned and buried; a funeral monument.^[6][13]
2. A bust: a sculpture or painting of the head and upper chest of a person, without arms.^[6][4][1]
3. The human body from the waist up; the torso.^[6][5]
4. A woman's breasts; the bust measurement taken around them.^[6][17][1]

Related words

• Italian busto

Usage notes

Old Portuguese had another busto “cattle pen; enclosed pasture”, of disputed origin: Latin charters of 1166 and 1179 have de busto de uacas, and Viterbo cites the charter of Covilhã of 1186.^[6][18][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. busto
3. ^ a b c d Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. busto
4. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. busto
5. ^ 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. busto
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. busto
7. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. busto
8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. busto
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 83
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1422
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. bustum
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. bustum
13. ^ a b c d 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, 835
14. ^ 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, 203
15. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 308
16. ^ 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. busto
17. ^ 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. busto
18. ^ 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. busto
19. ^ 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, 217