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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word com

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1273 a text in Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, spelt cu More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin cum
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin cum
Aromanian cu
Italian con
Portuguese com
Romanian cu
Spanish con
English cum
Derivations
From the same root
Latin cumque ← cum
Latin mēcum ← cum
Latin quondam ← cum
Latin quoniam ← cum
Romanian cuminte ← cu

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /kõ/, /kũ/, /ku/[1]
  • Portugal: /kõ/[1]

Forms

Houaiss records the medieval spellings cu (1273), com and co in the 13th century; the Galician-Portuguese Crónica Troiana writes con.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cum (“with”), written Old Galician-Portuguese con and Old Galician-Portuguese cu in the oldest texts.[2][4][3][1] In Latin the preposition took the ablative and expressed company, accompaniment, manner and means; because it marked manner and means, it took on in the Romance languages the special role of introducing the instrument.[2]

The same Latin word is Galician con, Spanish con, Italian con and Romanian cu; in French and Catalan it was replaced by descendants of Latin apud.[5][1]

The Latin word goes back to the Old Latin form com, Proto-Italic *kom and Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“next to, at, with”), which Wiktionary also connects with the prefix Proto-Germanic *ga-.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1273 from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, in the spelling cu.[2] Cunha puts it in the 13th century.[4]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) and Pereira (1697) gloss it simply with Latin cum.[6][7] Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as the preposition of every kind of union, company and gathering, and Morais (1789) as the preposition of concomitance and union.[8][9] Figueiredo (1899) adds the instrument and the link between things to companionship.[10] The modern dictionaries give a long list of senses from these: agreement and disagreement, relations between people, comparison, contents, addition, physical states (estar com fome) and manner.[2][11]

Timeline

  • 1273 – first record, spelt cu.[2]
  • 13th century – the spellings com and co.[2]
  • c. 1400 – com in the Santiago fragment of the Flos Sanctorum, its first text in the CTA corpus.[12]
  • 1611 – Barbosa glosses it with Latin cum.[6]
  • 1789 – Morais defines it as the preposition of concomitance and union.[9]

Meanings

Preposition

  1. with, in the company of; together with: Foi ao cinema com os primos.[2][13][1]
  2. With, in agreement (or disagreement) with: Estou de acordo com você.[2]
  3. Marks relations between people, friendly or hostile: É muito paciente com os alunos.[2][1]
  4. By means of, using: Abriu a porta com a chave.[2][13][1]
  5. Having, containing: um copo com água, uma casa com jardim.[2][1]
  6. Marks a physical or mental state: estar com frio, estar com pressa.[2][11]
  7. Marks manner: Ouviu tudo com atenção.[2][13]
  8. Marks comparison: Ela é parecida com a avó.[2]
  9. against: a guerra com o país vizinho.[2][1]
  10. As a consequence of, given: Com esta chuva, ninguém sai.[2][1]

Word family

  • Latin cum
  • Galician con

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. com
  3. ^ a b 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. com
  4. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. com
  5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2385
  6. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. com
  7. ^ 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. com
  8. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. com
  9. ^ 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, 288
  10. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 316
  11. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. com
  12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. com
  13. ^ 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. com

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

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

Last edited on . ·