doce

Forms

doce m or f (plural doces)^[1] Houaiss records doce and doze in the 13th century and douçe in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dulcis (“sweet; pleasant”), written Old Galician-Portuguese doce and doze in the oldest texts.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Nascentes, after Carolina Michaëlis, explains the vowel by the vocalisation of the /l/: /ul/ became /ui/, then /oi/ and finally /o/.^[6]

The same Latin word is Galician doce, Spanish dulce, Catalan dolç, French doux, Italian dolce and Romanian dulce.^[7][1] Corominas argues that the /u/ of the Spanish word is not a sign of learned origin, unlike the /o/ of the other languages.^[8]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *dulkʷi- and compares Ancient Greek γλυκύς (glukús, “sweet”), but finds the link with the Greek word hard to explain by regular sound change; he thinks Latin and Greek may have borrowed it from the same unknown source.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1100 names a woman Duze, with the Romance form of the word.^[4] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria of the second half of the 13th century the Communion is mais doce ca mel “sweeter than honey” and angels sing doçes sões “sweet sounds”: the senses of taste and of pleasant feeling are both there from the start.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The medieval texts use the adjective for fresh water as opposed to salt (agoas doçes de rrios et de fontes in the General Estoria, augua doçe ou ssalgada in 1386) and for gentle words (paravoas doces).^[4] Morais in 1789 adds ferro doce “soft iron” that bends without breaking and a staircase with a gentle slope, and records the noun doce “a dish made with honey or sugar, fruit, eggs”.^[10]

In parts of Portugal and Brazil the noun also means sugar itself, and Portuguese informal speech uses the adjective for “tipsy”.^[2][11] The word passed into the creoles: dosi in Kabuverdianu, dochi in Sãotomense, dushi in Papiamentu and dóci in Macanese.^[1]

Timeline

• 1100 – a Latin charter names a woman Duze.^[4]
• 13th century, second half – mais doce ca mel in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4]
• 1386 – augua doçe ou ssalgada “fresh or salt water” in a document.^[4]
• 1416 – the word in the Vida de Santo Aleixo.^[12]
• 1542 – doçe in a private letter.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records the noun doce, a dish made with honey or sugar.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. sweet, tasting of sugar or honey; sweetened.^[2][14][1]
2. Not salty, fresh (of water); not bitter or sour.^[2][14][1]
3. Pleasant to the senses or the mind; happy, carefree: uma doce lembrança.^[2][14][1]
4. Gentle, affectionate, kind.^[2][14][1]
5. Soft, mellow (of a voice, a wind or a colour).^[2][14]
6. (informal) Running smoothly, without sticking (of a lock or a mechanism).^[2][15]
7. (Portugal, informal) tipsy.^[2]

Noun

1. A sweet dish, a dessert; a preserve or jam of fruit cooked in sugar.^[2][15][1]
2. A sweet, a piece of candy.^[2][1]
3. (regional, Portugal and Brazil) Sugar.^[2][11]
4. (figurative) A sweet, gentle person.^[2][1]

Word family

• adoçar
• doçura
• doceiro
• doçaria
• adocicar
• algodão-doce

Related words

• dulçor
• dulcificar
• Latin dulcis
• Galician doce
• Spanish dulce

Usage notes

A marinheiro de água doce is a sailor who has hardly been to sea, a novice.^[16] In Brazil fazer doce is to feign indifference or to sulk.^[2] The old woman's name Doce survives as Dulce.^[17][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. doce
3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. doce
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. doce
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. doce
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. 162
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2792
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 535
9. ^ 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 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, 452
11. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 459
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. doce
13. ^ 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. doce
14. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. doce
15. ^ a b 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. doce
16. ^ 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, 1104
17. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. s.v. doce