caro

Forms

caro (feminine cara, masculine plural caros, feminine plural caras, comparable, comparative mais caro, superlative o mais caro or caríssimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cārus (“dear, precious, beloved”), already Old Galician-Portuguese caro in the 13th-century texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin word meant both “costly” and “dear, loved”, and the Portuguese word has kept both senses.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician caro, Spanish caro, Catalan car, Occitan car, French cher and Italian caro.^[4][1] The Spanish word is recorded from the poem of the Cid.^[5][6]

The Latin word goes back to *kāros and *kéh₂ros (“desired, desirable”), from a root meaning “to wish, to love”.^[7][1] De Vaan compares Gaulish personal names, the Latvian kārs (“lustful”) and the Old Irish carae (“friend”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria of the 13th century use the word in both its senses: the Mother of God is someone devemos tẽer mui cara “we must hold very dear”, and one cantiga tells of a man who gave all he had to the poor en ũu ano caro “in a year of dearth”.^[8] The troubadour Pero da Ponte plays on the contrast between caro “dear, costly” and rafece “cheap”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana has lles custou moy caro a sua morte “their death cost them very dear”, and the medieval chronicles speak of bread sold caro “at a high price”.^[8] Bluteau describes the word as what costs more than it is worth, and adds the sense of a victory bought with blood and lives.^[9] Morais (1789) records both the price sense and “beloved”, with the adverbial use in custar caro.^[10] Houaiss and Aurélio put the price senses first and “dear, beloved” after them.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in both senses, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][8]
• c. 1430 – first occurrence in the CTA corpus, in the Horto do Esposo.^[12]
• 1562 – first record of the derivative careiro.^[3]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines the word by its price sense and records victoria cara.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais gives the price sense first and “beloved” second.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. expensive, having a high price.^[2][11][1]
2. Priced above its real worth.^[2]
3. Charging high prices: an expensive lawyer, an expensive restaurant.^[2][11]
4. Involving great expense; costly.^[2][11]
5. Bought or paid for with great sacrifice or suffering.^[2][11]
6. dear, greatly valued or loved; querido.^[2][1]

Adverb

1. At a high price, materially or morally: Pagou caro pelo erro.^[2][11]
2. More than is reasonable.^[2]

Word family

• careiro
• carinho
• encarecer
• encarecimento

Related words

• carestia
• caridade
• Latin cārus
• Galician caro

Usage notes

Aurélio advises against the phrase preço caro, since the price itself is high, not dear.^[11]

Houaiss and Aurélio also record a Brazilian ethnonym caro, a people of the Ramarama family of Rondônia, and Houaiss a botanical noun caro for the plants of the genus Carum, from Greek; both are separate words.^[2][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. caro
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. caro
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1725
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 881
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caro
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. caro
9. ^ 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. caro
10. ^ 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, 236
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. caro
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. caro