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conselho

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word conselho

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s 13th-century texts, spelt cõsello More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin consilium
Ultimate origin
Latin cōnsulō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin cōnsulō
Latin cōnsilium
French conseil
Italian consiglio
Portuguese conselho
Spanish consejo
Romanian consiliu
Derivations
From the same root
Latin cōnsul ← cōnsulō
Latin cōnsultō ← cōnsulō
Latin cōnsultor ← cōnsulō
Latin cōnsultus ← cōnsulō
Latin cōnsiliārius ← cōnsilium
Latin cōnsilior ← cōnsilium
Italian consigliare ← consiglio

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /kõˈse.ʎu/[1]
  • Portugal: /kõˈsɐ(j).ʎu/[1]
  • Northern, Portugal: /kõˈse.ʎu/[1]
  • Central, Portugal: /kõˈse.ʎu/[1]

Forms

conselho m (plural conselhos)[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote conselho, consello, cõsello and conssello;[2][3] Houaiss also has cuselho (14th century) and comsselho (15th).[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cōnsilium (“deliberation; council; advice”), written Old Galician-Portuguese consello and Old Galician-Portuguese conselho in the oldest texts.[2][3][1] Nascentes considers it a semi-learned development.[4] The learned borrowing of the same Latin word is consílio, which Houaiss first finds in a dictionary of 1949–1958.[2][5][1]

The same Latin word is Galician consello, Spanish consejo, Catalan consell, French conseil and Italian consiglio.[6][1][7] The Latin noun is formed from cōnsulō (“to deliberate, consult”) with the suffix -ium.[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cantigas of the 13th century use the word mostly for help or a way out of trouble: tal que conselho nom me sei “so that I know no remedy for myself” (Airas Engeitado), Mais, amigas, conselho há d'haver “but, friends, there must be a way” (João Garcia de Guilhade).[9][10] Common phrases were dar conselho, filhar conselho “to take advice” and sen conselho “helpless”.[10] The sense “deliberative assembly” is also medieval.[11]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) gives the senses “advice given or received”, “intention, resolution” and “a board of councillors for public administration”, as in Conselho de Estado.[12] Figueiredo (1899) and Silva Bastos (1912) record carta de conselho, an honorary title granted by the king.[13][14]

Modern dictionaries list many institutional senses: governing boards, school and university councils, courts martial (conselho de guerra) and family councils.[2][15] The word passed into Tetum as konsellu.[1]

Timeline

  • 13th century – first records, as cõsello.[2][3]
  • 14th century – conselho in the Trasladação de S. Nicolau.[16]
  • 1569 – Cardoso glosses conselho with Latin consilium.[17]
  • 1712–1728 – Bluteau lists dar conselho, pedir conselho and tomar conselho.[18]
  • 1789 – Morais records Conselho de Estado.[12]
  • 1899 – Figueiredo records carta de conselho.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. advice, an opinion on what someone should do: Pedi-lhe um conselho sobre o emprego.[2][15][1]
  2. Good sense, prudence: uma pessoa de bom conselho.[2][15]
  3. A considered opinion or a decision taken after reflection.[2]
  4. A council or board, a body that advises, decides or administers, public or private.[2][19][1]
  5. An assembly of ministers; a court, especially a military one: conselho de guerra.[2][20]
  6. A meeting of the teachers of a school or university.[2][21]

Word family

Usage notes

Aurélio sends the reader to compare the similar-sounding concelho.[15] In Rio de Onor, in north-eastern Portugal, conselho is the name of the assembly of one representative from each household.[22]

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 l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. conselho
  3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. conselho
  4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. conselho
  5. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. consílio
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2164
  7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 132
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. consilium
  9. ^ 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. conselho
  10. ^ 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. conselho
  11. ^ 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. conselho
  12. ^ 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, 313
  13. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 334
  14. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. conselho
  15. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. conselho
  16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. conselho
  17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. conselho
  18. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. conselho
  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. conselho
  20. ^ 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. conselho
  21. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. conselho
  22. ^ 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. conselho

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

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

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