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comunidade

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word comunidade

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1272 More words from the 13th century
Borrowed from
Latin communitas
Ultimate origin
Latin commūnis
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin mūnis
Latin commūnis
French commun
Romanian comun
Italian comune
Portuguese comum
Spanish común
Latin commūnitās
Italian comunità
Portuguese comunidade
Romanian comunitate
From the same root
Latin commūnālis ← commūnis
Latin commūnicō ← commūnis
Latin commūniō ← commūnis
Latin commūniter ← commūnis
Spanish comunión ← commūnis
French communal ← commun
French communisme ← commun
French communiste ← commun

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /ko.mu.niˈda.d͡ʒi/[1]
  • Portugal: /ku.mu.niˈda.dɨ/, [ku.mu.niˈða.ðɨ][1]
  • Portugal, Southern: /ku.mu.niˈda.dɨ/[1]

Forms

comunidade f (plural comunidades)[1] Medieval texts also write cõmunydade (1273) and comonidade (15th century).[2][3] The municipal records of Santiago de Compostela have comunnidade, comonidade and cumunidade beside comunidade.[4] Before the spelling reforms the word was also written communidade.[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin commūnitās (“community, fellowship”), first recorded in 1272.[2][3][1] Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word.[5] The Latin noun is formed from commūnis (“belonging to many or to all, common”) with the suffix -tās.[2][6][1]

The same Latin word gave Galician comunidade, Spanish comunidad, Catalan comunitat and Italian comunità.[1][7] French communauté goes back to an Old French alteration of an earlier form borrowed from the Latin word.[8] The DLE notes that the Latin noun was itself modelled on Ancient Greek κοινότης (koinótēs).[9]

The Latin adjective goes back to Old Latin commoinis and *kommoinis, and is cognate with Proto-Germanic *gamainiz (“shared, common”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record to 1272, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, and a spelling cõmunydade to 1273.[2] In the municipal records of medieval Santiago de Compostela the word names the body of the townspeople, governed and represented by their council, as in por prol da comunidade “for the good of the community”.[4]

Semantic evolution

From the townspeople as a body the word spread to any group with a shared life or interest: a religious house and its members, the citizens of a state, and the state itself; the sense “municipality” is now obsolete.[2] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders it simply by Latin communitas.[11] The older Aulete already has the abstract sense “the quality of being common”, as in comunidade de bens “community of property”.[12] Modern dictionaries add the sense in ecology, a set of populations living in the same area.[2][1]

In Goa the Portuguese word named the agricultural association of each village, which held its land in common.[13] Dalgado says that Konkani took the word over and that English village community renders it.[13] In Brazil comunidade is also a euphemism for a poor neighbourhood or favela.[1] In some rural speech of Portugal it means “a great quantity”.[14]

Timeline

  • 1272 – first record, cited by Houaiss from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.[2]
  • 1273 – the spelling cõmunydade.[2]
  • 15th century – the variant comonidade.[2][3]
  • 1496 – comunidade in the Regimento proveitoso contra a pestenença.[15]
  • 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses it with Latin communitas.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The state of being shared by several people; comunhão: Os dois países têm uma comunidade de interesses.[2][16]
  2. Agreement, harmony of views or feelings.[2][16]
  3. A community: a group of people living in the same area under one government and sharing a cultural and historical heritage; society as a whole.[2][17]
  4. A group linked by a common feature within a larger society: a comunidade cabo-verdiana de Lisboa.[2][1]
  5. A religious congregation living under a rule, and the house where it lives.[2][18]
  6. (by extension) The place where such a group lives.[2][19]
  7. (ecology) A set of populations of living things sharing an area; biocenose.[2][1]
  8. (Brazil, euphemistic) A poor neighbourhood; a favela.[1]

Word family

  • comunidadezinha

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. comunidade
  3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. comunidade
  4. ^ 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. comunidade
  5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. comunidade
  6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. commūnitās
  7. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. comunidade
  8. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. communauté
  9. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. comunidad
  10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. communis
  11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. comunidade
  12. ^ 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. comunidade
  13. ^ a b Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 1, 301
  14. ^ 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. comunidade
  15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. comunidade
  16. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. comunidade
  17. ^ 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. comunidade
  18. ^ 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. comunidade
  19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2284

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

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

Last edited on . ·