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destino

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word destino

Confidence
Established
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1567 More words from the 16th century
Ultimate origin
Latin dēstinō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin dēstinō
French destiner
Portuguese destino
From the same root
French destin ← dēstinō
Latin dēstinātiō ← dēstinō
Latin dēstinātus ← dēstinō

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /desˈt͡ʃĩ.nu/[1]
  • Rio-de-Janeiro: /deʃˈt͡ʃĩ.nu/, /dʒiʃ.ˈtʃi.nu/[1]
  • Portugal: /dɨʃˈti.nu/[1]
  • Northeast-Brazil: /diʃ.ˈtĩ.nu/[1]

Forms

destino m (plural destinos)[1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Portuguese destinar (“to destine, decide”).[2][3][4][5] The verb is from Latin dēstinō (“to fix, make fast; to determine, resolve”), recorded from 1539 in a participle.[6][1]

The Latin verb is formed with dē- on an unattested verb *stanō, from the root of stō (“to stand”).[7][1] Wiktionary traces that stem through Proto-Italic *stanō to Proto-Indo-European *stnéh₂ti.[1] Spanish destino is likewise formed on its verb.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the noun to a text of 1567, and Cunha to 1572.[2][3] Morais and Vieira both quote Camões's Lusíadas (canto IV, stanza 46): ajuda-o seu destino “his destiny helps him”.[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The first dictionaries treat the word as “fate” and “purpose”: Pereira (1697) glosses it with Latin coeptum “undertaking”, and Folqman (1755) with fatum.[11][12] Morais (1789) explains it as the fate of the pagans and the poets, a fixed chain of events, and also as an intention: ter outro destino “to have another aim”.[9]

The sense “place someone or something is sent to” is in the original Caldas Aulete and in Figueiredo (1899), beside “use, application”.[13][14] Houaiss lists seven senses today, from personified fate to the destination of a journey, and the phrase sem destino “aimlessly”.[2]

Timeline

  • 1539 – first record of the verb, as the participle destynado.[6]
  • 1567 – first record of the noun in Houaiss.[2]
  • 1572 – Cunha's first date for the noun.[3]
  • 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro lists destino.[11]
  • 1755 – Folqman glosses it with Latin fatum.[12]
  • 1789 – Morais defines it as fate and as purpose.[9]
  • 1899 – Figueiredo adds “place to which a thing or person is directed”.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. fate, destiny: the power thought to rule what happens to every person and thing: Cada um tem o seu destino.[2][4][1]
  2. The course of events held to be fixed by providence or by natural law.[2][15]
  3. fortune, lot: what befalls someone, good or bad.[2][4]
  4. The future: what will happen to someone.[2][4]
  5. The purpose or use for which something is set aside: o destino das verbas.[2][4][5]
  6. The final outcome of something; what has become of someone.[2][15]
  7. destination: the place where someone or something is going; direction: o comboio com destino ao Porto.[2][4][1]

Usage notes

Sem destino means “aimlessly, at random”.[2][5]

Houaiss, Aurélio and Michaelis also record a separate Brazilian informal noun destino “lack of judgement”, the same as desatino, formed from des- and tino.[2][4][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. destino
  3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. destinar
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. destino
  5. ^ a b c 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. destino
  6. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. destinar
  7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ 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. destino
  9. ^ a b c 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, 428
  10. ^ 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, 950
  11. ^ 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. destino
  12. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. destino
  13. ^ 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. destino
  14. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 436
  15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. destino
  16. ^ 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. destino

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Destino.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/destino. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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