fado

Forms

fado m (plural fados)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fātum (“prophecy; destiny”).^[2][3][4][1] The same Latin word is Spanish hado, Old Spanish fado as Berceo wrote it, Catalan fat and Logudorese fadu, and it was borrowed into Basque as patu.^[5][6][7] The Latin noun is the neuter of fātus, the past participle of for (“to speak”), so it meant first “what has been spoken”, an oracle.^[8][1]

The name of the song is the same word: Nascentes explains that it was applied to a kind of popular song that comments lyrically on someone's fate.^[4] fada “fairy” comes from Latin fāta, the plural of the Latin noun.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 15th century, and Cunha the sense “destiny” to the 16th.^[2][3] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 glosses Fado with Latin fatum, and Barbosa (1611) explains it, after Cicero, as the word or command of God.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) describes fate as the chain of secondary causes that God's will has fixed from eternity, and remarks that the heathens imagined it as an unchangeable decree of their gods.^[11] Morais (1813) quotes Camões's Lusíadas for the word.^[12] In the plural, os fados also came to mean a person's last end, death.^[13][14]

The sense “Portuguese popular song, usually mournful, accompanied on the Portuguese guitar” is recorded from 1879, and it was also used of a dance to the same music.^[2][15] Aurélio suggests that the song probably grew out of the Brazilian lundu, brought to Lisbon after the return of King João VI in 1821.^[16] In Portugal the word took on the senses “prostitution” and “the life of a ruffian” (a fadista), and Silva Bastos and Figueiredo record the popular sense “life in a brothel”.^[2][17][13] In one Portuguese dialect foi ao fado meant “he went out to have fun”.^[18]

Timeline

• 15th century – first record.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Fado as Latin fatum.^[9]
• 1611 – Barbosa defines it as the word or command of God.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau's long article on fate.^[11]
• 19th century – the sense “song”, which Houaiss dates to 1879.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. fate, destiny; what must necessarily happen: Ninguém foge ao seu fado.^[2][1]
2. (music) The fado, a Portuguese popular song, often sad in tone, accompanied by the guitarra portuguesa; also the music of such a song.^[2][19][1]
3. A dance performed to this music.^[2][15]
4. (Portugal) prostitution; the life of a ruffian or vagrant.^[2]
5. (in the plural) One's last end; death.^[13][14]

Word family

• fadista

Related words

• fada
• fadário
• fadar
• fatal
• Latin fātum
• Spanish hado

Usage notes

Houaiss records the musical term fado corrido, a kind of instrumental accompaniment of the fado, and Porto Editora the fado de Coimbra, a style of its own.^[2][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fado
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fada
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fado
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. fatum
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3222
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 303
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. fātum
9. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fado
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fado
11. ^ 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. fado
12. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 5
13. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. fado
14. ^ a b 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. fado
15. ^ a b 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. fado
16. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fado
17. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. fado
18. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. fado
19. ^ 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. fado
20. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4145