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doloroso

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word doloroso

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1400s More words from the 15th century
Borrowed from
Latin dolorosus
Ultimate origin
Latin dolor
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin doleō
French douloir
Italian dolere
Portuguese doer
Romanian durea
Spanish doler
Latin dolor
French douleur
Italian dolore
Portuguese dor
Romanian duroare
Spanish dolor
Latin dolōrōsus
French douloureux
Spanish doloroso
Italian doloroso
Portuguese doloroso
From the same root
Latin condolēscō ← doleō
Latin indolēscō ← doleō
Romanian durere ← doleō

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /do.loˈɾo.zu/[1]
  • Portugal: /du.luˈɾo.zu/[1]

Forms

doloroso (feminine dolorosa, masculine plural dolorosos, feminine plural dolorosas, metaphonic)[1] The inherited Old Galician-Portuguese form was dooroso (13th century); doorosso still occurs in the 15th century.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin dolōrōsus (“painful”), a learned word.[1][4][5] The Latin adjective is formed from dolor (“pain, grief”) with -ōsus.[2][1] It displaced the inherited Old Galician-Portuguese dooroso, formed like door, the old form of dor, which is inherited from the Latin noun.[1][2][3][6]

The same Latin word is Spanish doloroso, Catalan dolorós, French douloureux and Italian doloroso.[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The inherited dooroso is in the Cantigas de Santa Maria: per que lle mandava dar morte doorosa, “for which he ordered a painful death for him”.[8] Houaiss records the learned doloroso from the 15th century, Cunha from the 16th.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712) gives three senses: causing pain, lamentable, and done with sorrow of soul, as a contrite confession; he also explains the mistérios dolorosos, the five sorrowful mysteries of the rosary.[9] Morais (1789) and Vieira (1871) list “causing pain” and “accompanied by pain”.[10][11] The feminine noun a dolorosa, the bill, is according to Nascentes a translation of French douloureuse.[4]

Timeline

  • 13th century – the inherited dooroso in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.[8][2]
  • c. 1430 – dóóroso in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).[12]
  • 15th century – the learned doloroso.[2]
  • 1712 – Bluteau explains the mistérios dolorosos.[9]
  • 1871 – Vieira: “causing pain, affliction, grief”.[11]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. painful, causing physical pain: uma injeção dolorosa.[2][13][1]
  2. Causing grief or distress; hurtful: uma perda dolorosa.[2][14][1]
  3. Expressing pain; sorrowful, dolorous.[2][15][1]

Word family

  • dolorosamente

Usage notes

The feminine and the plural have an open vowel: dolorosa, dolorosos /ɔ/.[16][15]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. doloroso
  3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. dor
  4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. doloroso
  5. ^ 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. doloroso
  6. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. dor
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ a b 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. dooroso
  9. ^ 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. doloroso
  10. ^ 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, 453
  11. ^ a b 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, 1111
  12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. dooroso
  13. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. doloroso
  14. ^ 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. doloroso
  15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. doloroso
  16. ^ 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. doloroso

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Doloroso.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/doloroso. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

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