cruel

Forms

cruel m or f (plural cruéis)^[1] The old plural was cruees, and Houaiss records crueles and cruevil in the 14th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crūdēlis (“cruel, merciless”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cruel in the oldest texts.^[3][4][2][1]

The same Latin word is Galician cruel, Spanish cruel, Catalan cruel, French cruel and Italian crudele.^[5][6] The DHLF suggests that the French form was remade on the Latin, or that it continues a popular Vulgar Latin *crūdālis, as the old Old French crual shows.^[7]

The Latin adjective is formed from crūdus (“raw, bloody, rough”), the source of cru, with the suffix -ēlis.^[8][9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *krowoþo- and tentatively Proto-Indo-European *kreuh₂-odʰ-o- (“raw”), related to cruor (“blood from a wound”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it in the 13th century: cantiga 4 has a man who failed como traedor cruel “like a cruel traitor”, cantiga 27 Juyão, emperador cruel “Julian, the cruel emperor”, and cantiga 175 os seus omẽes cruees “his cruel men”.^[2] Cunha also dates it to the 13th century, with the sense “hard, unfeeling”.^[4] Machado had found it only in the 16th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Troiana calls Nestor the cruellest and most unruly man in all Greece, and the General Estoria calls earth the hardest and cruellest of the elements.^[2] Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as inhuman, without pity, fond of shedding blood.^[10] Morais (1813) adds “making others suffer”, and Vieira (1871–1874) quotes Joana da Gama's Ditos da Freira on the cruel war waged within the heart.^[11][12]

Houaiss lists the extended senses “hard, implacable”, “strict, severe”, “horrible”, and “painful, causing suffering”, as of a fate or an anguish.^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – cruel and cruees in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][4]
• 14th century – the forms crueles and cruevil.^[3]
• 1416 – the Vida de Santo Aleixo uses it.^[13]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it with Latin crudelis and inhumanus.^[14]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as inhuman and fond of shedding blood.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Taking pleasure in shedding blood or causing pain; cruel, bloodthirsty: um rei cruel.^[3][1]
2. Liking to do harm or to torment; pitiless: Era cruel com os animais.^[3][15]
3. Hard, implacable, unbending; strict, severe.^[3]
4. Horrible, atrocious: uma morte cruel.^[3][1]
5. Painful, causing suffering; distressing: uma dúvida cruel.^[3][1]

Word family

• cruelmente

Related words

• cru
• crueldade
• Latin crūdēlis
• Spanish cruel

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 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. cruel
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cruel
4. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cru
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 145
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. cruel
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. crūdēlis
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. cruel
11. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 498
12. ^ 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, 645
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cruel
14. ^ 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. cruel
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cruel