cornudo

Forms

cornudo (feminine cornuda, masculine plural cornudos, feminine plural cornudas)^[1] Cunha records cornudo from the 13th century and the variant cornuto from the 16th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cornūtus (“horned”).^[3][2][4][1] The Latin adjective is formed from cornū (“horn”) with an adjective suffix.^[5][1]

The same Latin word is Spanish cornudo, Catalan cornut, French cornu, Italian cornuto and Romanian cornut.^[6][1]

Houaiss finds the sense “deceived husband” old and hard to explain.^[3] He notes that the Greeks already spoke of “making horns” on a husband in the 2nd century AD, and that horned animals usually live in pairs or in herds round one jealous male.^[3] For the same idea French cocu is preferred, from the word for the cuckoo, and Portuguese cuco has been used so too, but the image of the horn prevails in corno and in this word.^[3][3] The Italian word has the sense by about 1470.^[3] Wiktionary notes that the link between horns and the deceived husband runs through all the Romance languages and beyond, and that its origin is disputed.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use the word of devils in cantiga 119: a crowd of demons seized a man, ũus negros e outros cornudos “some black and others horned”.^[7] This is the literal sense, “having horns”.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates the figurative sense “husband deceived by his wife” to the 14th century.^[3] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders cornudo with the Latin curruca, the name of the bird into whose nest the cuckoo lays its eggs, and Pereira (1697) defines it outright as the husband of an adulterous wife.^[8][9] Morais (1789) gives both senses, the horned one and the deceived husband, and Vieira (1871) labels the second popular.^[10][11]

As a noun it names the hammerhead shark in Rio Grande do Sul and in Portugal, as the same Latin adjective does in Spanish and Catalan.^[3][12][6] The DLP also records it as a name of the devil, who is drawn with horns.^[12] In regional Portugal it is one of many popular words for the deceived husband.^[13]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria call devils cornudos “horned”.^[7][2]
• 14th century – the sense “deceived husband” is first recorded, according to Houaiss.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses cornudo with the Latin curruca.^[8]
• 1697 – Pereira defines it as the husband of an adulteress.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais gives the senses “horned” and “deceived husband”.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having horns (cornos), especially large ones; chifrudo.^[3][12][1]
2. (figurative, pejorative) Of a man: cuckolded, deceived by his wife or partner.^[3][12][14]
3. (figurative, informal) Full of complications or contradictions; bicudo: a dilemma or argument with two horns.^[3][12]

Noun

1. (pejorative) A man deceived by his partner; a cuckold.^[3][12]
2. (ichthyology) The hammerhead shark (Sphyrna zygaena), also called cação-martelo.^[3][12]
3. The devil, drawn with horns.^[12]

Related words

• corno
• cornuto
• chifrudo
• Latin cornū
• Spanish cornudo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cornudo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cornudo
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. cornudo
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cornūtus
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2242
7. ^ 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. cornudo
8. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cornudo
9. ^ a b 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. cornudo
10. ^ 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, 331
11. ^ 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, 521
12. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. cornudo
13. ^ 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. cornudo
14. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cornudo