fanfarrão

Forms

fanfarrão (feminine fanfarrona, masculine plural fanfarrões, feminine plural fanfarronas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish fanfarrón (“braggart”), first recorded in Portuguese in 1573.^[2][3][4][1] Figueiredo and Silva Bastos derived it from fanfarra, but that noun, from French, is recorded only from 1881.^[5][6][7]

The Spanish word is recorded as panfarrón in 1514 and in its present form from 1555.^[8][9] Corominas takes it for an expressive creation that spread from Castilian to the other Romance languages, and compares the equally expressive Arabic فرفار (farfār, “light, fickle; chatterer”) and fanfano (“chatterer”).^[8][9] Houaiss likewise derives it from an expressive base that is also in fanfare.^[2] Wiktionary takes the Spanish word directly from the Arabic one, and the DLE suggests a Hispano-Arabic *farfár from a Classical Arabic verb meaning “to break, tear”.^[1][10] Corriente, Pereira and Vicente see in it a variant of farfã, a name of the Christian knights in Muslim service in North Africa, which they trace through Berber ifǝrḫan (“cocks of the village”) to an Arabic word for a chick.^[11][12] French fanfaron was borrowed from the Spanish word in 1609.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record, of 1573, has the plural fõfarrões, and a spelling fanfarram follows in 1672.^[2] The derivative fanfarrice is recorded in a text that Houaiss dates c. 1537–1583, as fonfarrice.^[14] Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 renders Fanfarrão with Latin iactator “boaster”.^[15]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) defines the fanfarrão as a man who boasts of having done more than he can, in deeds of courage and of generosity, and also as one who dresses more richly than his means allow.^[16] Vieira has both senses, with quotations from the Monarchia Lusitana and Queirós.^[17] The second sense has since dropped out, and the modern dictionaries define only the boaster who displays a courage he does not have.^[2][18][19] The noun fanfarronada is recorded from 1833.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1537–1583 – fonfarrice “boasting”.^[14]
• 1573 – first record, in the plural fõfarrões.^[2]
• 1611 – Barbosa renders the word with Latin iactator.^[15]
• 1672 – the spelling fanfarram.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais gives the senses “boaster” and “one who dresses beyond his means”.^[16]
• 1833 – first record of fanfarronada.^[20]

Meanings

Adjective

1. boastful: given to bragging, making a show of a courage one lacks.^[2][18][1]

Noun

1. A braggart: one who tells tales of his own bravery, or boasts of deeds and qualities that are not his.^[2][21][1]

Word family

• fanfarrice
• fanfarronada

Related words

• fanfarra
• Spanish fanfarrón
• French fanfaron

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fanfarrão
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fanfarrão
4. ^ 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. fanfarrão
5. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. fanfarrão
6. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. fanfarrão
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fanfarra
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 849
9. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fanfarrón
10. ^ 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. fanfarrón
11. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. fanfarrão
12. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. farfã
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fanfaron
14. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fanfarrice
15. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fanfarrão
16. ^ 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, 97
17. ^ 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, 591
18. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fanfarrão
19. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. fanfarrão
20. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fanfarronada
21. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4173