dona

Forms

dona f (plural donas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote dona, dõna and donna.^[2][3] As a title it is abbreviated D. or D.ª and written with a capital.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin domna (“lady”), the shortened form of Latin domina (“mistress of a household, lady”), written Old Galician-Portuguese dona in the oldest texts.^[1][2][4] The Latin noun is the feminine of dominus (“master of a household”), related to domus (“house”).^[2][5] The short form is already found in Latin inscriptions.^[6]

The masculine of the same origin is dono “owner”, beside the title dom.^[2][7] Corominas notes that Galician-Portuguese alone kept both the masculine and the feminine as fully living words; in Spanish the same Latin word gave both Spanish dueña and the proclitic title Spanish doña.^[8][9] It is also Galician dona, Catalan dona, Italian donna and Romanian doamnă, while French dame reduced the vowel of the title word.^[10] The French word came back into Portuguese as dama, a doublet of this word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 960 already writes domna.^[2] In Galician-Portuguese a charter of 1271 has por mandado da dicta dona “by order of the said lady”, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria call the Virgin dona das donas, sennor das sennores “lady of ladies”.^[3] The first sense is “lady, woman of rank”, often a married woman as opposed to a donzela.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The troubadours used dona for a married lady, as opposed to a maiden, and dona d'algo for a noblewoman; before a name it was a noble title, as in dona Costança.^[3] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria it is also the title of queens, a Reỹa Dona Beatriz.^[3] The sense “owner of something” is from the 13th century as well, and a Galician document of 1412 calls landowning women as donas.^[2][3]

Barbosa in 1611 notes that in Entre-Douro-e-Minho dona meant “grandmother”.^[11] Morais in 1789 records the title of noblewomen and the dona who served in great houses, as distinct from the donzelas.^[12] Vieira observes that a senhora Dona Maria says “lady” twice, since dona already means it.^[13]

The title spread from the royal family to all women of standing, and in Brazil to every married woman; in Brazil dona is also “wife” and, informally, any woman.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 960 – domna in a Latin charter.^[2]
• 1271 – da dicta dona in a Galician-Portuguese charter.^[3]
• 13th century – dona in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the cantigas, and as an honorific title.^[3][2][14]
• 1277 – the spelling donna.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses dona as a married woman, Latin matrona.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa records dona “grandmother” in Entre-Douro-e-Minho.^[11]
• 1755 – Folqman lists dona de honor, a noble widow attending a queen.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (also Dona, abbreviated D.) A title placed before a woman's first name, once given to queens and noblewomen and now to women generally: Dona Rosa.^[2][17][1]
2. A female owner; the mistress of something: a dona do restaurante.^[2][18][1]
3. (Brazil) A married woman; wife.^[2][4][1]
4. (archaic) A lady, a noblewoman; a woman who is no longer a maiden.^[2][19]
5. (Brazil, informal) Any woman one speaks of, sometimes disparagingly.^[2][4]
6. (regional) A grandmother (avó).^[2][11]

Word family

• dona de casa

Related words

• dono
• dom
• dama
• donzela
• senhora
• Latin domina
• Spanish doña
• Galician dona

Usage notes

Dona de casa is a housewife.^[2][20] In Portugal senhora dona before a name is the more formal address.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. dona
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. dona
4. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. dona
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. dona
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 529
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. dueño
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2733
11. ^ a b c Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. dona
12. ^ 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, 454
13. ^ 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, 1117
14. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. dona
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. dona
16. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. dona
17. ^ 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. dona
18. ^ 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. dona
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. dona
20. ^ 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. dona