doutor

Forms

doutor m (plural doutores, feminine doutora, feminine plural doutoras)^[1] The medieval texts write doutor and the Latin spelling doctor from the 13th century, and douctor and dottor later.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin doctor (“teacher, instructor”), written Old Galician-Portuguese doutor in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Wiktionary calls it a semi-learned borrowing.^[1] The Latin spelling Old Galician-Portuguese doctor stood beside it in the 13th century, with Old Galician-Portuguese douctor in the 14th and Old Galician-Portuguese dottor in the 15th.^[2][3]

The same Latin word is Galician doutor, Italian dottore and French docteur, the French one a learned borrowing first recorded around 1150.^[1][4][5]

The Latin noun is the agent noun of doceō (“to teach”), formed with the suffix -tor.^[6][2][1] In classical Latin it meant a teacher or trainer;^[7][8][4] Christian writers used it for an apostle or a Father of the Church.^[7][8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Crónica Troiana the word means a learned man, an author of books: que forõ doutores “who were scholars”.^[9] A satirical cantiga addresses someone as doutor, asking what profit a married man finds in caring for his estate.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From “teacher” and “learned man” the word passed to the holder of the highest university degree: Barbosa (1611) still glosses it as a preceptor who gives instruction, while Morais (1789) defines it as one who has received the highest academic degree, with the right to wear the tassel and hood and to teach his faculty.^[11][12] Nascentes notes that the university degree was created in the 12th century, and that the title stuck to physicians because they, more than other graduates, made the most of it.^[13]

By extension it became a courtesy title for any graduate, for judges and magistrates, and above all for doctors of medicine, so that doutor alone came to mean “physician”.^[2][14] Figurative and ironic senses followed: a know-all, an old hand at something, often something disreputable.^[2][15] In the colloquial language of Portugal a doutor was also a chamber pot.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 13th century – doutor and the Latin spelling doctor in the texts Cunha's medieval index records.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – doutor in the Horto do Esposo.^[18]
• 1534 – first record in the private letters of the Post Scriptum corpus.^[19]
• 1562 – Cardoso's dictionary lists the derivative doutoramento.^[20]
• 1569 – Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary renders Doutor by Latin doctor.^[21]
• 1611 – Barbosa defines it as a preceptor who teaches.^[11]
• 1789 – Morais defines it by the academic degree.^[12]
• 1871 – Vieira quotes an old law forbidding a doutor to wear gilded stirrups and spurs.^[22]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who has been awarded a doctorate, the highest university degree, after defending a tese: É doutora em química pela Universidade de Coimbra.^[2][16][1]
2. A physician, a medical doctor: Chamaram o doutor a meio da noite.^[2][23][1]
3. A title of courtesy given to university graduates and, in Brazil, to lawyers, doctors and other professionals, and by humble people to anyone of higher standing.^[2][24]
4. A title due by law to magistrates (magistrado) and judges.^[2][16]
5. (religion) One of the great theologians whose teaching the Church recognises: the doutores da Igreja.^[2][16]
6. A very learned man;^[2] (ironic) someone who presumes to know everything.^[2][25][15]
7. (informal, humorous) An old hand at something, usually something bad: é doutor em desculpas.^[2]
8. (Portugal, informal) A chamber pot.^[16][15]

Word family

• doutorar
• doutoramento
• doutorando

Related words

• douto
• doutrina
• doutoral
• Latin doctor
• Latin doceō

Usage notes

In Brazil doutor is widely used as a form of address for lawyers, doctors and other professionals, whether or not they hold a doctorate; in Portugal the abbreviation Dr. is the usual title of any holder of a first degree.^[24][16][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. doutor
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. doutor
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. docteur
5. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. doutor
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. doctor
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. doctor
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. doctor
9. ^ 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. doutor
10. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. doutor
11. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. doutor
12. ^ 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, 456
13. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. doutor
14. ^ 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. doutor
15. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. doutor
16. ^ a b c d e f 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. doutor
17. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. doutor
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. doutor
19. ^ 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. doutor
20. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. doutoramento
21. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. doutor
22. ^ 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, 1136
23. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. doutor
24. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. doutor
25. ^ 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. doutor