escandaloso

Forms

escandaloso (feminine escandalosa, masculine plural escandalosos, feminine plural escandalosas, metaphonic)^[1] Early spellings are escamdaloso (before 1515), escandaloso (1535) and scandaloso (1555).^[2] The stressed vowel is closed /o/ in the masculine singular and open /ɔ/ in the plural escandalosos.^[3][4]

Etymology

Houaiss makes it borrowed from Latin scandalōsus (“scandalous, abominable”), as do Aurélio, the DLP and Figueiredo, and Nascentes calls it semi-learned.^{[2][5][6][7][8]} Wiktionary, Silva Bastos and Vieira instead form it in Portuguese from escândalo with the suffix -oso.^[4][9][10] The same Latin adjective gives Spanish escandaloso.^[11]

The Latin adjective is from scandalum (“stumbling block, cause of offence”), which is from Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον (skándalon), a word Wiktionary takes back to Proto-Indo-European *skand- (“to jump”).^[7][12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the first record, spelt escamdaloso, to before 1515.^[2] Its senses then were religious and moral: what gives offence and leads others into sin by its bad example.^[2][14]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau in 1712 applies the word to things and persons of bad example, and gives homem muito escandaloso “a man of notorious wickedness”.^[14] Morais in 1813 defines it as what causes scandal and sets a bad example.^[15] Vieira quotes Francisco Manuel de Melo's Apólogos Dialogais, aquelle escandaloso tabernáculo.^[10] Caldas Aulete adds the sense “oppressive”, as of usury that vexes free men.^[16]

The modern language uses it for what causes outrage by its size or its lack of scruple, and, informally, for what is loud or showy, such as clothes.^[6][16]

Timeline

• before 1515 – first record, spelt escamdaloso.^[2]
• 1535 – the spelling escandaloso.^[2]
• 1555 – the spelling scandaloso.^[2]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines it as “of bad example”.^[14]
• 1719 – escandellozas in a private letter.^[17]
• 1813 – Morais: “that causes scandal, that sets a bad example”.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Involving a scandal: um caso escandaloso.^[2][16]
2. That causes scandal; scandalous, outrageous.^[2][5][4]
3. (religion) That leads others into error or sin.^[2][5][6]
4. That sets a bad example.^[2][18]
5. Lacking decency or decorum; shameful, indecent.^[2][5][3]
6. Loud or showy; garish.^[16]

Word family

• escandalosamente

Related words

• escândalo
• escandalizar
• Latin scandalum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. escandaloso
3. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. escandaloso
4. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. escandaloso
5. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. escandaloso
6. ^ 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. escandaloso
7. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 534
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. escandaloso
9. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. escandaloso
10. ^ 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. 3, 252
11. ^ 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. escandaloso
12. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. escândalo
13. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. escândalo
14. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escandaloso
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 736
16. ^ a b c d 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. escandaloso
17. ^ 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. escandaloso
18. ^ 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. escandaloso