faminto

Forms

faminto (feminine faminta, masculine plural famintos, feminine plural famintas)^[1] The 14th-century form was famiinto;^[2][1] faminto is recorded from the 16th century.^[2][1] Nascentes reports, after Cornu, an old famĩĩto.^[3]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[4] According to Cunha and Wiktionary it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *faminentus, formed on *famen, a variant of Latin famēs (“hunger”); the Portuguese form then supposes an assimilation, through Old Galician-Portuguese famĩento and Old Galician-Portuguese famiinto.^[4][2][1] Aurélio and the DLP give the same etymon.^[5][6] Machado, as Houaiss reports, starts from the stem of famēlicus (“starved”) with the suffix changed to -ento.^[4] The REW instead derives it from *famulentus (“hungry”), the source of Old Occitan famolen.^[7][3]

Nascentes explains it as an alteration of famento, from the old fame “hunger” with the same suffix, as in friorento.^[8][3] That form still lives in Galician and Mirandese, and the literary language may have changed it under the influence of pedinte, as Leite de Vasconcelos suggested.^[8][3] The corresponding words are Galician famento, explained by Estraviz as a derivative of the Galician word for hunger, and Spanish hambriento.^[9][1]

The noun fome comes from a popular n-stem form of the Latin noun, as Spanish hambre does.^[10][11] De Vaan leaves the origin of the Latin noun open.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the adjective to the 14th century from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, and Cunha gives the 14th-century form famiinto.^[4][2] The Livro dos Mártires of 1513 has faminto.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) glosses the word with Latin famelicus.^[14] Bluteau already records the figurative sense “eager, longing”, translating ser faminto das honras “to hunger for honours”.^[15] The two senses, “very hungry” and “avid”, are those of today, and the word is also used as a noun, os famintos “the hungry”.^[4][16][6] Brazilian dialect surveys record it for a glutton, and a Portuguese one for “weak”.^[17]

Timeline

• 14th century – famiinto.^[2][4]
• 1513 – faminto in the Livro dos Mártires.^[13]
• 16th century – Cunha's date for the spelling faminto.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses faminto with famelicus.^[14]
• 1587 – faminto in a private letter.^[18]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records the figurative faminto das honras.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very hungry; famished; esfomeado: Os viajantes chegaram famintos à estalagem.^[4][19][1]
2. (figurative) Eagerly longing for something; avid (ávido): faminto de aventuras.^[4][16]

Noun

1. A hungry person.^[16][6]

Related words

• fome
• famélico
• famulento
• esfomeado
• Latin famēs
• Galician famento
• Spanish hambriento

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 Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. famélico
3. ^ a b c d 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. faminto
5. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. faminto
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. faminto
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3181
8. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. faminto
9. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. famento
10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 312
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3178
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. faminto
14. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. faminto
15. ^ 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. faminto
16. ^ 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. faminto
17. ^ 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. faminto
18. ^ 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. faminto
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. faminto