caçador

Forms

caçador m (plural caçadores, feminine caçadora, feminine plural caçadoras)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese caçar + -dor, already written Old Galician-Portuguese caçador in the oldest texts.^[1][2] Houaiss analyses it as the stem of the past participle caçado with the suffix -or.^[3] The same formation is Spanish cazador, Italian cacciatore and French chasseur.^[1]

The verb caçar is from Vulgar Latin *captiō (“to catch, hunt”), from captō (“to try to catch, grasp”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century already have it: cantiga 44 tells of a man about to take game como faz caçador “as a hunter does”, and cantiga 232 of a knight que era caçador “who was a hunter”.^[2] Cunha dates the word to the 13th century.^[5] It is also in the Crónica Troiana, of a man who was the best hunter of game in the world.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica of 1344 already uses it as an adjective, of a man who was mui caçador de todas caças “a great hunter of all kinds of game”.^[2] Morais (1789) records the figurative caçador de vãs glórias, one who does things to win empty glory, and the military sense: light soldiers who skirmish ahead of an army.^[6] The 1813 edition adds the adjective with feminine nouns, cão or ave caçador.^[7] Vieira lists caçador-mor, the court officer in charge of the royal hunt.^[8]

Houaiss adds a naval sense, a ship that gives chase to another, two Brazilian technical senses (a fishing rig of float, hook and sinker in the São Francisco region, and the pegs at the stern of a jangada where the sail rope is tied), and the compound caçador de cabeças “head-hunter”, now also a recruiter of executives.^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – caçador in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][5]
• 1344 – the Crónica Geral uses it of a man who was a great hunter.^[2]
• c. 1430 – it appears in the Horto do Esposo.^[9]
• 1755 – Folqman glosses it with Latin venator, and caçador de aves with auceps.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais records the military sense, light troops.^[6]
• 1813 – Morais notes the adjective with feminine nouns.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hunter, one who hunts animals for food, sport or a living.^[3][11][1]
2. (by extension) One who searches for something persistently: caçador de tesouros.^[1][11]
3. (military) A soldier of the light infantry or light cavalry, a chasseur.^[3][1]
4. (nautical) A ship that gives chase to another.^[3]
5. (Brazil, fishing) A fishing rig of float, hook and sinker, in the São Francisco region.^[3][11]
6. (Brazil) Each of the wooden pegs at the stern of a jangada to which the sail rope is tied.^[3]

Adjective

1. That hunts or is given to hunting: um cão caçador.^[3][11][1]

Related words

• caçar
• caça
• caçada
• Spanish cazador

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. caçador
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. caçador
4. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. caçar
5. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. caçar
6. ^ 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, 208
7. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 315
8. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 2, 17
9. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. caçador
10. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caçador
11. ^ a b c d 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. caçador