cabrão

Forms

cabrão m (plural cabrões)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote cabron, plural cabrões and cabrõõs; the 15th century has the plural cabrones.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese cabra (“goat”) + -ão, written Old Galician-Portuguese cabron in the oldest texts.^[1][4][5][6] The suffix is the augmentative, so the word first meant a big goat, the male.^[1] The DLP and Porto Editora take it through cabro, itself from the word for the she-goat.^[7][8] DELPo compares Spanish cabrón.^[9] Houaiss instead traces it to a Hispanic Latin *caprō (“big goat, billy goat”), and Vieira and Figueiredo had already proposed a Low Latin form, made on caper (“he-goat”).^[2][10][11]

The same formation is the Spanish word, Catalan cabró and Italian caprone.^[1] The base cabra is capra (“she-goat”), which Wiktionary traces to *kápros (“buck, he-goat”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 957 already has the Romance form: accepimus de uos in precio uno cabrone “we received from you as payment one billy goat”.^[3][12][2] Houaiss's date 1141 comes from a place name.^[3][12][2] In the vernacular, a cantiga de escarnho of Afonso X mocks men with moustaches longer than as barvas dos cabrões “the beards of billy goats”, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of slaughtering cabrões and of someone who bleated come cabron, like a billy goat.^[3][13]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 glosses cabrão with bode and Latin caper.^[14] Bluteau (1712–1728) already adds the figurative sense “cuckold, a husband who tolerates his wife's adultery”,^[15] which Morais (1789) records and which Vieira (1871–1874) illustrates from Amador Arrais.^[16][10] Vieira also lists fedor de cabrão for the smell of the armpits.^[10]

The old Caldas Aulete has two more senses: a child that cries a lot, and in Coimbra the university bell that announced classes;^[5] the DLP describes the bell as the large one rung on special occasions such as the death of a professor or student.^[7] In European Portuguese slang the word became a strong insult, “a nasty, contemptible person”, and an interjection of abuse.^[7][8][1] Regional senses include a man of bad reputation in Portugal and a strong, sturdy child on the middle São Francisco river in Bahia.^[17][18] The word passed into Macanese as cabrám.^[1]

Timeline

• 957 – a Latin charter writes uno cabrone.^[3][12]
• 1141 – cabronis in a place name.^[2][12]
• 13th century – cabron and cabrões in the cantigas of Afonso X.^[2][3]
• 15th century – the plural cabrones.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses cabrão with bode.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the sense “cuckold”.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais gives both the goat and the complaisant husband.^[16]
• 1881 – the first Caldas Aulete adds the crying child and the Coimbra bell.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. billy goat, the male of the goat; bode.^[2][4][1]
2. A large goat.^[19][8]
3. (vulgar, derogatory) A man whose wife is unfaithful, especially one who tolerates it; a cuckold, corno.^[2][4][1]
4. (Portugal, vulgar, offensive) A nasty, treacherous or contemptible person; sacana; also used as an exclamation of abuse.^[7][8][1]
5. A child that cries and bawls a lot.^[2][4]
6. (Coimbra, slang) The large bell of the University of Coimbra, rung on special occasions.^[7][5]
7. (Portugal) A fish, the caboz.^[8][19]

Related words

• cabra
• cabro
• Latin capra
• Spanish cabrón

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cabrão
3. ^ 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. cabron
4. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cabrão
5. ^ 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. cabrão
6. ^ 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. cabrão
7. ^ a b c d e 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. cabrão
8. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1605
9. ^ 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. cabrão
10. ^ a b c 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, 14
11. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. cabrão
12. ^ a b c d 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. cabrão
13. ^ 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. cabron
14. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cabrão
15. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cabrâõ
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, 207
17. ^ 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. cabrão
18. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. cabrão
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cabrão