cadáver

Forms

cadáver m (plural cadáveres)^[1] Houaiss's first dated form is cadaver (1623), without the accent.^[2] Feijó (1734) prescribes cadáver against cadavere.^[3] Wiktionary lists the variants cadavre, cadável, cadávele and cadávere.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cadāver (“dead body”), recorded from the 16th century.^[4][2][1] It is the Latin nominative, not the accusative from which most Portuguese nouns come.^[5]

The Latin word was also borrowed as Spanish cadáver (1438), French cadavre (before 1550, at first in the Latin spelling) and Italian cadavere.^[6][7][8] It survives in popular form only marginally, as in Spanish calabre and Asturian cadarma.^[9][10] Medieval Portuguese had a popular Old Galician-Portuguese caavrinha (14th century; earlier Old Galician-Portuguese caavrya, 13th century) “carcass, carrion”, from the Latin cadāverīna.^[4]

The Latin noun is derived from cadō (“to fall”), with an ending like that of papāver (“poppy”): the dead are “the fallen”.^[11][12][1] The derivation goes back at least to Tertullian; de Vaan accepts it tentatively, with an active perfect participle Proto-Italic *kadā-wes-, while others have compared Sanskrit कलेवर (kalevara, “corpse”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha dates the word to the 16th century.^[4] Houaiss's first date, 1623, comes from a quotation in Vieira's dictionary.^[2] Vieira quotes, among others, the line quem leva os corpos sem os corações leva só cadáveres “who takes the bodies without the hearts takes only corpses”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789 and 1813) defines it narrowly as the body of a dead man.^[14][15] Figurative senses followed: a person so weak or ill that he seems near death (cadáver ambulante, a walking corpse), and a thing that is extinct or obsolete.^[16][17][2] Brazilian slang made the word mean a creditor, whence enterrar o cadáver “to pay off a debt”, and also a drunk who has fallen asleep and is robbed.^[2][5][18]

Timeline

• 16th century – cadáver first recorded.^[4]
• 1623 – Houaiss's first dated record, spelt cadaver.^[2]
• 1734 – Feijó prescribes cadáver against cadavere.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as the body of a dead man.^[14]
• 18th century – cadaveroso;^[4] cadavérico follows in 1813.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dead body, a corpse, especially of a human being: O cadáver foi levado para autópsia.^[2][5][1]
2. (figurative) A person who is very ill, thin or pale, and looks close to death.^[2][5][19]
3. (figurative) The human body considered as frail and mortal.^[2]
4. (figurative) Something that is extinct or obsolete.^[19][18]
5. (Brazil, slang) A creditor; someone who collects a debt.^[2][5]
6. (Brazil, slang) A drunk lying asleep who is robbed.^[2][18]

Word family

• cadavérico
• cadaveroso

Related words

• Latin cadāver
• Spanish cadáver

Usage notes

Enterrar o cadáver is Brazilian slang for paying a debt, and passar por cima do cadáver de alguém means to have to kill someone first.^[2][19]

A popular story makes the word an acronym of Latin caro data vermibus “flesh given to worms”;^[8][1] Nascentes mentions it only as a curiosity, and it is a folk etymology going back to the medieval Schoolmen.^[8][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cadáver
3. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cadáver
4. ^ 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. cadáver
5. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cadáver
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cadáver
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. cadavre
8. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 86
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cadaver
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1450
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cadāver
12. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. cădāver
13. ^ 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, 24
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, 210
15. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 318
16. ^ 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. cadáver
17. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. cadáver
18. ^ 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. cadáver
19. ^ 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. cadáver