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castigo

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word castigo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1200s More words from the 13th century
Ultimate origin
Latin castīgō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin castus
Portuguese casto
Old French chaste
English chaste
Latin castīgō
French châtier
Italian castigare
Portuguese castigar
Portuguese castigo
Romanian câștiga
From the same root
Latin caste ← castus
Latin castīmōnia ← castus
Latin castitās ← castus
Latin incestus ← castus
Portuguese casta ← casto
English unchaste ← chaste
Latin castīgātiō ← castīgō
Latin castīgātor ← castīgō
Romanian câștig ← câștiga
Romanian câștigător ← câștiga

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /kasˈt͡ʃi.ɡu/[1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /kaʃˈt͡ʃi.ɡu/[1]
  • Portugal: /kɐʃˈti.ɡu/, [kɐʃˈti.ɣu][1]
  • Portugal, Southern: /kɐʃˈti.ɡu/[1]

Forms

castigo m (plural castigos)[1] Houaiss records the spelling castego in the 14th century and castyguo in the 15th.[2] A private letter of 1538 writes castiguo.[3]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Portuguese castigar (“to punish”), and Cunha and Houaiss both date it to the 13th century, like the verb.[2][4][5][1] The verb continues Latin castīgō (“to correct, reprimand”), and Wiktionary notes that it may have been an early borrowing from Latin rather than a fully popular word.[6][4][1]

The same Latin verb gives Galician castigar, Spanish castigar, Catalan castigar, Italian castigare and French châtier.[1] The Spanish noun formed in the same way, Spanish castigo, is recorded from 1220–1250.[7]

The OLD derives the Latin verb from the adjective castus (“pure, chaste”), with the ending of fatīgō.[8] Wiktionary instead starts from an unattested noun *castis (“purity, virtue”) with a suffix -igō taken from agō (“to do, drive”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the oldest texts the noun meant “counsel, warning, admonition” rather than “punishment”.[9][10] Nunes's glossary of the cantigas d'amigo explains prender castigo de alguem as “to follow someone's advice”, and a cantiga of Johan Perez d'Avoin has a shepherdess speaking aas outras en castigo “to the other girls by way of advice”.[9][10] The Crónica Troiana has contra uos non ual castigo nen rrogo “against you neither warning nor entreaty avails”.[9]

Semantic evolution

The sense “punishment” is the one the dictionaries give from the start: Cardoso (1569) renders castigo by Latin supplicium, and Barbosa (1611) adds castigatio, animadversio and poena.[11][12] Morais (1789) defines it as a penalty carried out, a punishment.[13] The original Caldas Aulete adds the lashes and spurring given to a horse in training, the whip used for it, and the placing of the darts in bullfighting.[14]

Figuratively the word names any torment or nuisance (este calor é um castigo), and Houaiss records Brazilian informal senses: bad luck, an unjust or humiliating defeat, a chore done only under obligation, and a beating.[2] Priberam has castigo máximo for a penalty kick in football.[15] In Portugal it has been recorded for a storm that ruins the crops.[16]

Timeline

  • 13th century – first records of the noun, in the sense “advice, warning”.[4][2][9]
  • 1416 – castigo in the Vida de Santo Aleixo.[17]
  • 1538 – a private letter spells it castiguo.[3]
  • 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses it with Latin supplicium.[11]
  • 1611 – Barbosa lists castigatio and poena among its Latin equivalents.[12]
  • 1789 – Morais defines it as a punishment carried out.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. punishment, a penalty inflicted on a person or an animal.[2][5][1]
  2. A reprimand or admonition about a mistake or fault.[2][5]
  3. (figurative) Something that causes suffering; a torment or nuisance: Ter de acordar tão cedo é um castigo.[2][1]
  4. Bad luck.[2]
  5. (Brazil, informal) An unfair or humiliating defeat.[2]
  6. (Brazil, informal) Something one does only because one has to.[2]
  7. (Brazil, informal) A beating with the fists.[2]
  8. grounding, a child's confinement at home as a punishment.[1]
  9. (bullfighting) The placing of the darts in the bull.[15][18]
  10. (horsemanship) The lashing or spurring of a horse; the whip used for it.[18][19]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. castigo
  3. ^ a b CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. castigo
  4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. castigar
  5. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. castigo
  6. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. castigar
  7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. castigar
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ 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. castigo
  10. ^ a b 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. castigo
  11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. castigo
  12. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. castigo
  13. ^ 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, 244
  14. ^ 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. castigo
  15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. castigo
  16. ^ 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. castigo
  17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. castigo
  18. ^ 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. castigo
  19. ^ 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. castigo
Cite this entry

“Castigo.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/castigo. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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