cabeludo

Forms

cabeludo (feminine cabeluda, masculine plural cabeludos, feminine plural cabeludas)^[1] Houaiss records the spelling cabelludo from the 14th century, and Cunha dates the spelling with ⟨llu⟩ to the 17th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *capillūtus (“hairy”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cabeludo in the oldest texts.^[1][2] Houaiss, Aurélio, the DLP and Priberam analyse it instead as a Portuguese formation from cabelo with the suffix -udo, and Wiktionary accepts that analysis as a description of the word's present shape.^{[2][4][5][6][1]}

The Vulgar Latin adjective is formed from Latin capillus (“hair”) with the suffix -ūtus, like *barbūtus.^[1] García de Diego sets it up as the source of Spanish cabelludo and Catalan cabellut, and Wiktionary compares Italian capelluto and French chevelu.^[7][1] The Galician cognate is cabeludo.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology quotes the word from the cantigas: Caldeiron mocks “eyebrows that meet, large and very hairy” (çobrancelhas mesturadas / grandes et mui cabeludas).^[9][10] In the Crónica Troiana a wild creature “was not clothed, but was all hairy like a beast” (el non andaua uestido mays todo era cabeludo cõmo besta).^[9] The first sense is thus “covered with hair”, of people and of beasts.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense, “having much or long hair”, is the only one the old Caldas Aulete gives for Portugal, together with couro cabeludo, the skin of the head where the hair grows.^[11] The same dictionary already lists Brazilian senses: “intricate, complicated, difficult” and “immoral, obscene”, a monkey with long hair, and the name of a political party.^[11]

Houaiss adds a sense “crude, exaggerated”, said of a lie, and labels the figurative senses informal.^[2] The party of the cabeludos was a governing party in Alagoas after the coming of age of Pedro II in 1840.^[12] As a noun the word also names a Brazilian shrub of the myrtle family with edible berries, the cabeluda, and in north-eastern Brazil a sweet bread topped with coconut.^[2][4][13]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record in Portuguese, according to Houaiss's and Cunha's medieval indexes.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the spelling cabelludo.^[2]
• 1513 – the Livro dos Mártires has the word.^[14]
• 17th century – Cunha's date for the spelling with ⟨llu⟩.^[3]
• 1769 – cabelludo in a ship's log of a voyage.^[15]
• 1881 – the Caldas Aulete records the Brazilian senses “intricate” and “obscene”.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having much hair or long hair; hairy, long-haired: um rapaz alto e cabeludo.^[2][4][1]
2. Covered with hair or fur; peludo: um cão cabeludo.^[6][16][1]
3. (Brazil, informal) Hard to deal with or to solve; intricate, complicado: uma questão cabeluda.^[2][11][5]
4. (informal) Crude and exaggerated, hard to believe: uma desculpa cabeluda.^[2][11]
5. (informal) obscene, indecent: um conto cabeludo.^[2][4][5]

Noun

1. A person with long or thick hair; in Portugal often disparaging.^[4][5]
2. (Brazil) A saki monkey of the genus Pithecia, with long, thick fur; parauacu.^[2][4]
3. (Brazil) A myrtaceous tree or shrub (Plinia glomerata) with white flowers and edible yellow berries; cabeluda.^[2][4]
4. A long-haired caterpillar.^[12]
5. (Brazil, history) A member of the cabeludos, a party of Alagoas in the 1840s.^[2][12]
6. (north-eastern Brazil) A sweet bread with a coconut topping.^[13]

Word family

• couro cabeludo

Related words

• cabelo
• cabeleira
• Latin capillus
• Spanish cabelludo
• Galician cabeludo

Usage notes

Couro cabeludo is the scalp, the skin of the head from which the hair grows.^[11][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cabeludo
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cabelo
4. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cabeludo
5. ^ 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. cabeludo
6. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cabeludo
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
8. ^ a b Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. cabeludo
9. ^ 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. cabeludo
10. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. cabeludo
11. ^ a b c d e f 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. cabeludo
12. ^ a b c 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. cabeludo
13. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. cabeludo
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cabeludo
15. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. cabeludo
16. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1599