coronel

Forms

coronel m (plural coronéis, feminine coronela, feminine plural coronelas)^[1]

Etymology

Houaiss takes it as borrowed from Italian colonnello, a diminutive of colonna (“column”): the Italian word meant “small column” in 1472, then “a column of soldiers” in Machiavelli and “the commander of a column” in Firenzuola.^[2] In Portuguese, as in Spanish coronel, the first /l/ was dissimilated to /r/ and the final vowel dropped;^[2] the same Old French coronel existed, helped by corone (“crown”), before the learned French colonel replaced it in 1543.^[2] Nascentes in 1955 also derives it from Italian, noting the same dissimilation and loss of the final vowel.^[3]

Cunha, the DLP, Aurélio, Aulete and Michaelis, and Nascentes in 1966, take the Portuguese word instead from the French word, which is itself from the Italian.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} Wiktionary takes it from Middle French coronel.^[1] French recorded coulonnel in 1534 and the modern spelling in 1556; its forms with /r/ of the 16th and early 17th centuries are probably not from Spanish but from the same dissimilation.^[10] The Spanish word is recorded in 1511, and Corominas takes it from Italian, while the DLE gives it through French.^[11][12]

The Italian word for column is from Latin columna (“column, pillar”), a collateral form of columen (“top, summit; pillar”).^[2][1][13] Wiktionary connects these with Proto-Indo-European *kʷel-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is a document of 1541 with the form coronés;^[2] coronel itself appears before 1583.^[2] Cunha's addenda give a record from before 1595, with coronelia “a troop commanded by a colonel” in the same text.^[4] The sense is the military rank.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Pereira in 1697 and Folqman in 1755 render it by the Latin tribunus militum and legionis tribunus.^[14][15] Morais in 1813 defines the colonel as the officer of the highest rank, head of a regiment, and mentions coronéis do mar ranking above the captains of sea and war.^[16]

In Brazil the colonel became the rural political boss, usually a landowner, who held the power of a district; the original Aulete already records this, and Houaiss links it to coronelismo.^[7][2][17] From the man of money came the informal senses “the one who pays for everyone at the table” and “a man who keeps a mistress”;^[2][6][5] Aurélio quotes Mauro Mota's guess that the first was born in an old night boarding house in Recife.^[2][6][5] In Portugal the DLP records a popular sense, “husband of an unfaithful wife”.^[5] The word passed into Kadiwéu as goloneegi.^[1]

Timeline

• 1472 – Italian colonnello “small column”.^[2]
• 1511 – first record of Spanish coronel.^[11]
• 1534 – French coulonnel, then colonel in 1556.^[10]
• 1541 – first Portuguese record, as coronés.^[2]
• before 1583 – the form coronel.^[2]
• before 1595 – coronel and coronelia in one text.^[4]
• 1611 – a private letter uses the title.^[18]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it Tribunus militium.^[14]
• 1813 – Morais defines the colonel as head of a regiment.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (military) colonel: the rank above tenente-coronel in the army and air force.^[2][6][5]
2. An officer holding this rank: O coronel passou revista às tropas.^[2][6]
3. (Brazil) A rural political boss, usually a big landowner, who controls the politics of a district.^[2][5][6]
4. (by extension, derogatory) A powerful person who rules a group in an authoritarian way.^[2][7]
5. (Brazil, informal) Someone who pays for everyone at the bar; a rich man exploited by others.^[2][5][6]
6. (Brazil, informal, derogatory) An older man who keeps a mistress.^[2][8]
7. (Portugal, popular) A cuckold, the husband of an unfaithful wife.^[5][2]

Word family

• coronelato
• coronelismo
• coronelia
• tenente-coronel

Related words

• coluna
• Latin columna
• Italian colonnello
• French colonel
• Spanish coronel

Usage notes

A heraldic coronel, the open crown that tops a coat of arms, is a separate word: Houaiss dates it to 1597 and takes it from Spanish coronel (before 1487) “moulding, heraldic crown”, usually explained as a diminutive of corona “crown”, though Corominas thought it might be connected with columna.^[2] Morais's 1813 dictionary quotes the law of 1597: Pondo coronéis nos escudos das armas “placing coronels on the shields of arms”.^[16] Nascentes and Aurélio also derive it from Spanish, Figueiredo from Latin corona.^[9][6][19]

Morais and Vieira also record a monastic coronel, the friar who kept the instruments for the tonsure and the shaving.^[16][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 r s t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. coronel
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 137
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. coronel
5. ^ 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. coronel
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. coronel
7. ^ a b c 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. coronel
8. ^ 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. coronel
9. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. coronel
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. colonel
11. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. coronel
12. ^ 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. coronel
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. columna
14. ^ 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. coronel
15. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. coronel
16. ^ a b c d Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 473
17. ^ 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. coronel
18. ^ 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. coronel
19. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. coronel
20. ^ 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, 527