criatura

Forms

criatura f (plural criaturas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote both creatura and criatura in the 13th century, and cryatura is recorded in the 15th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin creātūra (“a created thing, creature”), written Old Galician-Portuguese creatura and Old Galician-Portuguese criatura in the oldest texts.^[2][4][1] Nascentes says the word came down by a semi-learned route.^[5] The Latin noun is formed on the stem of the past participle of creō (“to create”), to which Houaiss refers it as well as to the Portuguese verb criar.^[2] Wiktionary describes it as the feminine future participle of the verb used as a noun.^[1] The word belongs to Late Latin: Lewis and Short cite it from Tertullian, Prudentius and the Vulgate.^[6]

The same Latin word is Spanish criatura, Galician criatura, Italian creatura and the Dalmatian kratoire; French créature is a learned borrowing.^[7][1] The REW notes that across a wide area the word took on the sense “child”.^[7]

De Vaan explains the Latin verb as originally “to make grow”, from Proto-Italic *krējā-, and links it with crēscō (“to grow”).^[8] Wiktionary traces it to the root Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- (“to grow”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use creatura for the created beings that owe honour to the Virgin, que a ssa Madre onrrar / deven todas creaturas “for all creatures must honour his Mother”, and also for a child: ouve del un fillo mui bela creatura “she had by him a son, a very fair creature”.^[3] The Crónica Troiana has criatura both for a human being and for a new-born child.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense “anything God created”, set against the Creator, has been with the word since the 13th century.^[3][2] Morais in 1789 lists any created thing, rational or not, the fetus in the womb, a tender child, and a person who owes his standing and fortune to another, quoting Vieira for the last.^[9] The original Caldas Aulete adds “man, as opposed to God” and the phrase ser criatura de alguém “to owe someone one's rank and be wholly devoted to him”.^[10] From that sense came the figurative “protégé, disciple” of the modern dictionaries.^[2][11]

The sense “baby, new-born child” lives on in the south of Brazil, shared with the Spanish of the Plate, and in Galician, which also uses the word for a fetus.^[12][13] In Portugal Ó criatura de Deus! is a friendly way to address anyone.^[14] Houaiss records a newer sense, “a monster”.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – creatura and criatura in Galician-Portuguese texts, among them the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3]
• 15th century – the spelling cryatura.^[2]
• 1513 – first of the CTA's prose records, in the Livro dos Mártires.^[15]
• 1571 – criatura in a private letter.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais lists the senses “fetus”, “young child” and “dependant of a patron”.^[9]
• 1899 – Figueiredo defines the figurative sense “someone wholly devoted to the person he owes much to”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A being or thing that has been created, especially by God, as opposed to the Creator (criador).^[2][18]
2. Each of the beings that exist; a living creature: Ela cuidava de todas as criaturas da quinta.^[2][1]
3. A person, an individual: É uma criatura muito simpática.^[2][11]
4. (figurative) A person who owes his rise to another and is wholly devoted to him; a protégé, cria.^[2][19]
5. (figurative) Someone whose ideas or training come from another: Era uma criatura daquele mestre.^[2][11]
6. A frightening being, a monster.^[2][10]
7. (southern Brazil) A newborn baby.^[12]

Related words

• cria
• criação
• criado
• criador
• criadouro
• criança
• criar
• Latin creātūra
• Spanish criatura

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. criatura
3. ^ a b c d e 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. criatura
4. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. criatura
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. criatura
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2305
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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, 348
10. ^ a b 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. criatura
11. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. criatura
12. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. criatura
13. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. criatura
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. criatura
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. criatura
16. ^ 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. criatura
17. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 362
18. ^ 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. criatura
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. criatura