falso

Forms

falso (feminine falsa, masculine plural falsos, feminine plural falsas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin falsus (“deceived; untrue”), written Old Galician-Portuguese falso in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The Latin adjective is the past participle of fallō (“to deceive”), which Wiktionary derives from Proto-Indo-European *gʰwel- (“to lie, deceive”).^[2][4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician falso, Spanish falso, Catalan fals, Occitan fals, French faux and Italian falso.^[5][1] The sources do not agree on how it entered Portuguese: Nascentes calls it learned.^[6][7] Meyer-Lübke, as Nascentes reports, derives the Spanish and Portuguese word from the Catalan one instead.^[7][5] For the Spanish word, Corominas holds that it was a popular word in every period, whose kept /l/ reflects only the pronunciation of the educated.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective is recorded from the 13th century.^[2][3] In the cantigas it is above all a moral word: the Cancioneiro da Ajuda uses it for the disloyal and the traitor, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria have un mui falss'amador “a very false lover”, who often changed his loves.^[9] A cantiga d'amor has Ai, fals’é porque mentia “ah, she is false because she lied”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Medieval prose already used it of things as well as people: the Crónica Geral has fezo hũa carta falsa “he made a forged letter”, and the Crónica Troiana speaks of falsos amadores “false lovers”.^[9] Bluteau (1712) lists testemunha falsa, falso testemunho and os falsos Deoses.^[11] Morais (1789) gives the senses “untrue”, “forged” (of coins, weights and measures) and “feigned” (of friendship or a smile), and the phrase em falso “without foundation”.^[12]

As a noun it means what is false, a liar or a forger, and in Portugal also a hiding place under a stair or in a piece of furniture.^[2][13] Malay and Indonesian palsu are borrowed from the Portuguese word.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records; the derivatives falsar and falsidade are as old.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo is the first text of the CTA corpus with the word.^[14]
• 16th century – first record of falsário.^[3]
• 1712 – Bluteau lists falso testemunho and os falsos Deoses.^[11]
• 18th century – first record of falsear.^[3]
• 1789 – Morais records the senses “forged” and “feigned”.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. false, untrue; contrary to the facts: uma notícia falsa.^[2][15][1]
2. Involving lies or deceit; feigned: falso testemunho.^[2][15]
3. Disloyal, treacherous: um amigo falso.^[15][13]
4. Pretending to be what one is not: um falso médico.^[2]
5. Made in imitation of the real thing; forged, fake: notas falsas.^[2][16][1]
6. Only apparent: fundo falso, teto falso.^[2]
7. (logic) False.^[1]

Noun

1. What is false.^[2][17]
2. A false person; a forger.^[2][18]
3. (Portugal) A hidden space in a building or a piece of furniture.^[17][13]

Adverb

1. Falsely.^[2][13]

Word family

• falsar
• falsear
• falsidade
• falsário

Related words

• falsificação
• falsificador
• falsificar
• Latin falsus
• Spanish falso
• French faux

Usage notes

Em falso means “without support” or “missing the mark”: pisar em falso, to put one's foot down where there is no ground.^[13][12]

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 j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. falso
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. falso
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. falsus
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3171
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. falso
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 208
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 841
9. ^ 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. falso
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. falso
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. falso
12. ^ a b c 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, 96
13. ^ a b c d e Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. falso
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. falso
15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. falso
16. ^ 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. falso
17. ^ a b 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. falso
18. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4164