fígado

Forms

fígado m (plural fígados)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *fīcătum (“liver”), a form of Latin fīcātum with the stress moved to the first syllable.^[2][3][1] The Latin word comes from the phrase iecur fīcātum, “liver of an animal fattened on figs”, from iecur (“liver”) and an adjective formed on fīcus (“fig”); the meaning “liver” passed from the noun to the adjective.^[2][1]

The phrase imitates Ancient Greek συκωτόν (sukōtón), from σῦκον (sûkon, “fig”), after the ancient custom of feeding with figs the animals whose liver was eaten.^[4][5] Corominas and the DHLF explain the different stresses of the Romance forms by the influence of the Greek word.^[4][5]

The same word is Galician fígado, Spanish hígado (older fígado), Catalan fetge, French foie, Italian fegato and Romanian ficat.^[2][1][5] Bluteau (1712–1728) thought the Portuguese word came from Italian.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha dates the word to the 13th century and Houaiss to the 14th.^[3][2] The Crónica Geral of 1344 says that castles were planted nos figados dos cristãaos “in the livers of the Christians”, that is, in their very heart.^[7]

Semantic evolution

As the seat of temper the liver gave figurative senses: Morais (1789) records homem de fígados “a man of courage” and homem de bons or maus fígados, of good or bad will.^[8] Figueiredo (1899) gives “courage” and “character”, and the modern dictionaries keep de maus fígados “ill-tempered, vindictive”.^[9][2][10] In cookery the word names the liver of cattle and poultry used as food.^[11][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record.^[3]
• 1344 – figados in the Crónica Geral.^[7]
• 1496 – the Regimento proveitoso contra a pestenença is the first text in the CTA corpus with the word.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa's dictionary renders it iecur and hepar.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records the figurative senses “courage” and “disposition”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The liver, the large gland beside the digestive tract that secretes bile (bílis).^[2][14][1]
2. (cooking) The liver of an animal eaten as food, and a dish made with it: fígado de vitela com cebolada.^[11][1]
3. (figurative) temperament, character.^[2][10]
4. (figurative) courage, nerve: Não teve fígado para o enfrentar.^[2][11]

Word family

• figadal

Related words

• figo
• Latin ficus
• Spanish hígado

Usage notes

Ter maus fígados or ser de maus fígados means to be bad-tempered or vindictive, and desopilar o fígado to cheer someone up.^[2][10]

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. fígado
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fígado
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 357
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. foie
6. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fígado
7. ^ 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. figado
8. ^ 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, 614
9. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. fígado
10. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4286
11. ^ a b c 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. fígado
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. figado
13. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. figado
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. fígado