dado

dado¹ a die (for games)

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈda.du/^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈda.du/, [ˈda.ðu]^[1]
• Portugal, Southern: /ˈda.du/^[1]

Forms

dado m (plural dados)^[1]

Etymology

The word for a die is inherited from Vulgar Latin *dadu, a form that the Romance words for “die” presuppose, and was written Old Galician-Portuguese dado in the oldest texts; its further origin is disputed.^[2][1][3][4] The same base is Galician dado, Spanish dado, Catalan dau, Occitan dat, Italian dado and French dé.^[1][4][5]

Corominas thinks it probably of Eastern origin, from a word for “game, die” that exists in Arabic and in Persian, and Nascentes, Aurélio and the DLP follow him.^{[3][6][4][7][8]} Corriente rejects that Arabic word as rare and unknown in the dialects, and proposes a shortened Latin rendering of an Arabic phrase meaning “knucklebone with numbers”, ending in Arabic أَعْدَاد (ʔaʕdād, “numbers”); the DLE and Wiktionary give the same etymon.^{[9][10][11][1]} Others take it from Latin datum (“given”), the past participle of the verb for “give”: Nocentini, by ellipsis from a phrase for “a piece moved”, and Bluteau (1712–1728) because the dice pass from hand to hand.^[12][13] Meyer-Lübke found that the Italian forms point to *dadum and the Provençal to *datum, and left the question open.^[5] Houaiss gives both views, and notes that the second explains why the participle is sometimes listed as a sense of this word.^[2] Corriente adds that the folk link with dar may have helped the word to establish itself.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of men who jogavan dados “played at dice”, of ribaldos e jogadores de dados “ruffians and dice players”, and of one who lost his money aos dados “at dice”.^[14] In the cantigas d'escarnho Pero Viviaez compares spotted teeth to dice: dentes pintos come dados.^[14] Houaiss dates the noun to the 13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) describes the die as a piece of bone or ivory with six square faces marked with black points from one to six.^[13] Vieira (1871–1874) records dados falsos ou carregados loaded dice, the phrases lançar os dados “to take a risk” and pôr o dado na testa “to torment”, a cubic cannonball of the old artillery, and the plain part of a pedestal in architecture.^[15] In Brazil it also names a lace stitch of Ceará and a stone railway sleeper.^[2] The word passed into Malay and Swahili as dadu and dadu.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – jogavan dados in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Dado with Latin talus and taxilus.^[16]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau derives the word from Latin datus.^[13]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira: loaded dice, the cubic shot and the architectural sense.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A die: a small cube, usually of bone, wood or ivory, with its faces marked with one to six points, used in games of chance: Lançou os dois dados.^[2][7][1]
2. (military, historical) A cubic cannonball of the old artillery.^[2][15]
3. (architecture) The dado: the plain part of a pedestal, between the base and the cornice; a plinth (plinto).^[2][8][17]
4. (Brazil) A lace stitch of Ceará that forms squares.^[2]
5. (Brazil) A stone railway sleeper.^[2]

dado² given; datum, data

Etymology tree of dado²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin dō

Aromanian dau

Italian dare

Portuguese dar

Romanian da

Spanish dar

Latin datus

Italian dato

Portuguese dado

From the same root · dado²

Latin circumdō ← dō

Latin dēdō ← dō

Latin dīdō ← dō

Latin ēdō ← dō

Latin obdo ← dō

Latin prōdō ← dō

Latin reddō ← dō

Latin trādō ← dō

Latin vendō ← dō

Romanian odată ← da

Romanian preda ← da

Latin datum ← datus

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈda.du/^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈda.du/, [ˈda.ðu]^[1]
• Portugal, Southern: /ˈda.du/^[1]

Forms

dado (feminine dada, masculine plural dados, feminine plural dadas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for “given” is inherited from Latin datus (“given”), the past participle of dō (“to give”), and in Portuguese it is the past participle of dar, used as an adjective, a noun and a determiner.^[2][7][8][1] It was written Old Galician-Portuguese dado in the oldest texts, and Houaiss has the variant Old Galician-Portuguese daudo in the 14th century.^[2][14] The learned noun data is a doublet.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the adjective to the 13th century.^[2] In the cantigas d'escarnho Afonso X has ca non m'é dado “for it is not permitted to me”, with the sense “proper, allowed”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Pereira (1697) and Bluteau (1712–1728) record dado “inclined”, as in dado ao estudo “given to study” and dada ao vinho “given to wine”.^[18][13] Aulete's first edition adds “sociable” and the proverb a cavalo dado não se olha aos dentes “don't look a gift horse in the mouth”.^[19]

As a noun, dado meant a proposition granted or a fact known, and in mathematics, in the plural, the known quantities of a problem.^[15] Cunha dates dado² to 1813.^[20] The plural dados is now the word for “data”, results of research and information processed by computers, and dados pessoais for personal details.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – non m'é dado “it is not permitted to me” in a cantiga d'escarnho.^[14]
• 14th century – the variant daudo.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira: dado “inclined”.^[18]
• 1813 – Cunha's date for dado as a word of its own.^[20]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira: the noun “proposition granted; known quantity”.^[15]
• 1874 – dados in a text on physiology.^[21]

Meanings

Adjective

1. given, offered; given free: um presente dado de coração.^[2][7][1]
2. Allowed, permitted: Não lhe foi dado escolher.^[7][22][1]
3. Known beforehand; fixed.^[2][1]
4. sociable, affable: É um rapaz muito dado.^[2][7][1]
5. Inclined, prone (to): dado à leitura.^[2][13][1]
6. Dated (of letters and documents).^[2][22]

Determiner

1. A certain, a particular: Num dado momento, todos se calaram.^[2][8][1]

Noun

1. A datum: something known from which a problem is solved or a judgement formed.^[2][8][22]
2. (in the plural) data: the results of research or calculation; information processed by a computer.^[2][1]
3. (in the plural) Personal details: Preencha os seus dados.^[2]