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carreira

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word carreira

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1278 a document cited in Viterbo's Elucidário, spelt quareira More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin *carraria
Ultimate origin
Gaulish *karros

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /kaˈʁe(j).ɾɐ/, [kaˈhe(ɪ̯).ɾɐ][1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /kaˈʁe(j).ɾɐ/, [kaˈχe(ɪ̯).ɾɐ][1]
  • Portugal: /kɐˈʁɐj.ɾɐ/[1]
  • Northern, Portugal: /kɐˈʁej.ɾɐ/[1]

Forms

carreira f (plural carreiras)[1] Houaiss records quareira in 1278, carreira and carreyra in the 13th century and careyra in the 14th.[2] Cunha also has carreira and carreyra from the 13th century.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *carrāria, short for via carrāria (“road for carts”), written Old Galician-Portuguese carreira and Old Galician-Portuguese carreyra in the oldest texts.[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary notes that the phrase is documented in Latin from 804.[6] The adjective is formed on carrus (“wagon”), so that the Portuguese word can also be read as carro with the suffix -eira.[5]

The same Latin word is Galician carreira, Spanish carrera and Catalan carrera.[7][5] Nascentes compares Old Italian carraia and Old French charriere.[8] The DHLF derives Old Occitan carreira “road” from the same source, and holds that carriera was taken from Occitan and lent carrière to French in 1534.[9] Wiktionary compares the English word career.[5]

The Latin noun is a Gaulish word, the name of a kind of wagon.[10] Wiktionary traces it to Gaulish *karros, from *karros (“wagon”) and Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós, from the root *ḱers- (“to run”).[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Viterbo quotes a document of Guarda of 1298 in which a testator leaves thirty maravedis “for my carreira”, that is for a pilgrimage to Santa Maria of Rocamadour.[12] In the cantigas the word means “road, way”: Afonso X writes of a guide who led a man per aquela carreira “along that road”, and one of the Cantigas de Santa Maria tells of a pilgrim to Santiago who killed himself na carreira, on the way.[13][14]

Semantic evolution

Already in the medieval language the word had figurative uses: a journey, the parting of the hair (in a cantiga of Johan Soarez Coelho), and in ir per ũa carreira “to go the same way” the sense of a direction or tendency.[13][15] Viterbo records it also as a feudal due, a journey on foot or with a beast or cart that a tenant owed his lord every year.[16]

Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders it with Latin semita “path”, while Pereira (1697) and Bluteau (1712–1728) take it as a run or a racecourse.[17][18][19] The sense “row, file” is dated by Houaiss to the 16th century and the sense “profession with chances of promotion” to 1679.[2] Folqman (1755) has the sea route, carreira da India, do Brazil, and the barco da carreira, the regular passenger boat, and Morais (1789) adds the course of a ship, the course of life and the trail of gunpowder.[20][21] Vieira (1871–1874) marks the old senses “cart road” and “road” as antiquated.[22]

Modern Portuguese in Portugal uses it for a regular transport line and for the bus that serves it, a use Houaiss also gives for Mozambique.[2][23] In Brazil it means a path between rows of a plantation, the rapids of a river, the parting of the hair and, in drug slang, a line of powder.[2][24] In Rio Grande do Sul a carreira is a horse race on a straight track.[25]

Timeline

  • 1278 – first record, spelt quareira, in a document cited from Viterbo.[2]
  • 1298 – pela minha Carreira “for my pilgrimage” in a document of Guarda.[12]
  • 13th century – carreira “road” in the cantigas of Afonso X and the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[13]
  • 1416 – the first record in the CTA corpus, in the Vida do Cativo Monge Confesso.[26]
  • 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin semita “path”.[17]
  • 16th century – first record of the sense “row, file”.[2]
  • 1679 – first record of the sense “profession”.[2]
  • 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as a ground for running on foot or on horseback.[19]
  • 1755 – Folqman has carreira da India and barco da carreira.[20]
  • 1789 – Morais adds the course of a ship and the course of life.[21]
  • 1871–1874 – Vieira marks the sense “cart road” as antiquated.[22]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A narrow road or path; a cart track.[2][27][5]
  2. (north-eastern Brazil) A path between the rows of a coffee or maize plantation.[2][24]
  3. (Portugal) The fixed route of a transport service; a line: um avião de carreira.[2][28]
  4. (Portugal, Mozambique) A bus of a public transport line.[2][27]
  5. (horse racing) A course between barriers for horse races; each race of a meeting.[2][29]
  6. A fast run: Deu uma carreira até à paragem.[2][4]
  7. A row or file of people or things.[2][28]
  8. (Brazil, informal) A line of a powdered drug, usually cocaine, laid out to be sniffed.[2][5]
  9. A career, a profession that offers advancement: a carreira militar.[2][4][28]
  10. The course of a person's life.[2][28]
  11. (Brazil) The parting of the hair.[2][4]
  12. (Brazil) rapids of a river.[2][24]
  13. (nautical) A slipway on which a ship is built or down which it is launched.[2][29]

Word family

  • carreirinha

Usage notes

Às carreiras means “in a hurry”, and arrepiar carreira “to turn back”.[2][27] Houaiss records carreira de Santiago as a popular name of the Milky Way.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. carreira
  3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. carro
  4. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. carreira
  5. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. carreira
  6. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. carraria
  7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. carraria
  8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 101
  9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. carrière
  10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. carrus
  11. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. carrus
  12. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 240
  13. ^ 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. carreira
  14. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. carreira
  15. ^ 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. carreira
  16. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 241
  17. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. carreira
  18. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. carreira
  19. ^ 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. carreira
  20. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. carreira
  21. ^ 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, 238
  22. ^ a b 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, 122
  23. ^ 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. carreira
  24. ^ a b c Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. carreira
  25. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. carreira
  26. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. carreira
  27. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. carreira
  28. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1839
  29. ^ a b 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. carreira

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Carreira.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/carreira. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·